Ichiro, Ohtani, and the New Era for Japan-U.S. Baseball Diplomacy

Abstract: The Major League Baseball heroics of Japanese baseball players such as Ichiro Suzuki and Shohei Ohtani represent the culmination of decades of pan-Pacific sporting exchange, a phenomenon that has engaged athletes, coaches, and sporting fans across North America, Asia, and the world. This transnational narrative of binational professional mobility and sporting diplomacy has also served as a touchstone for players from the United States who have made successful careers of their own in Japan, and specifically Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The list of expatriate players who have starred in Japan includes Randy Bass, Greg “Boomer” Wells, Wally Yonamine, and Karl “Tuffy” Rhodes. The two-way flow of baseball between Japan and the United States, going back over a century and a half, is marked by the individual stories of American and Japanese players who trailblazed their playing careers overseas, as well as contemporary touchstones like the World Baseball Classic, which has transformed the way the sport is followed and understood globally.