Japanese baseball teams need to find ways to reduce the salary gap with their Major League Baseball counterparts, Tomoko Namba, owner of the Japan Series champion DeNA BayStars, said Monday.
Namba, the founder of mobile gaming firm DeNA Co., became the first woman to own a Japanese pro baseball club in January 2015 and tasted championship success for the first time 10 years later.
DeNA also has B-League basketball’s Kawasaki Brave Thunders and J-League football’s third-division S.C. Sagamihara under its management.
Tomoko Namba (L), owner of the DeNA BayStars baseball club, and the team’s manager Daisuke Miura pose for photos after a press conference in Tokyo on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kyodo)
“Our baseball has its own strengths, and it’s good to see the growth of the game on both sides of the Pacific,” Namba told a news conference hosted by the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, alongside manager Daisuke Miura.
“But I often feel frustrated when players of my team move to the majors and sign deals we can’t offer,” the soft-spoken owner said. “The United States is only 10 hours away by plane. I wonder why the salary gap is so big.”
Yakult Swallows third baseman Munetaka Murakami and Yomiuri Giants third baseman Hayato Sakamoto top the list of the highest-paid Japanese players at an annual salary of 600 million yen ($3.9 million).
Murakami became the youngest batting Triple Crown winner in 2022 at the age of 22 and is expected to be posted by the Swallows for a move to MLB after the 2025 season.
DeNA BayStars owner Tomoko Namba takes part in a “beer fight” after the baseball club’s Japan Series victory in Yokohama on Nov. 3, 2024. (Kyodo)
The Lotte Marines have decided to post Roki Sasaki, Japan’s hardest-throwing pitcher at age 23, this offseason.
“We need to make efforts to pay more to players,” Namba said. “All of us have to think harder to make the baseball business stronger and more profitable.”
Miura, who was a starting pitcher when the BayStars last won the Japan Series in 1998, believes more work needs to be done to boost domestic baseball.
“Now Japanese players can feel MLB is closer, but it’s not a place anyone can go,” he said. “My focus is how we can make baseball even more exciting for the city of Yokohama and the whole nation. If we play exciting ballgames, more attention will come to us naturally.”
DeNA BayStars manager Daisuke Miura is tossed into the air by his players after they clinched their first Japan Series baseball title since 1998 with an 11-2 victory over the SoftBank Hawks in Game 6 on Nov. 3, 2024, at Yokohama Stadium in Yokohama, near Tokyo. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Earlier this month, the BayStars defied the odds to win their first Japan Series title in 26 years, upsetting the SoftBank Hawks, who dominated the Pacific League all season.
The BayStars bounced back from a third-place finish in the Central League regular season to reach the biggest stage with Climax Series playoff wins over the second-place Hanshin Tigers and champion Yomiuri Giants.
Asked the team’s goal for 2025, Miura said, “We came up short in our league title bid this year, so we’ll try to win both the league and Japan Series titles. It’s nice to have a clear goal even after we went all the way.”
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