The Meaning of Ichiro (60 page)

Said soccer expert and
Asian Wall Street Journal
reporter Sebastian Moffet, “Football crowds in most countries have a hard core of fans, usually behind the goal, and the
tension gradually tapers off towards the edges and in the side stands. In Japan, there was no gradual tapering. The hard core
could make as much noise as any crowd in the world, and generally had a fantastic time. But a few rows away, the other side
of an invisible line, shouting and singing became as embarrassing as it would be in a shopping center. These fans were purely
spectators and remained silent apart from clapping along with the drumbeat or gingerly slapping their thighs with a plastic
megaphone”
(see Japanese Rules,
Yellow Jersey Press, London, 2002, pp. 78-79). Jim Allen,
Yomiuri
baseball columnist, has this take: “The Tigers fans at Koshien definitely do not fit the mold, with more spontaneous—albeit
alcohol-fueled—razzing everywhere around the park. People all around the stadium get into the action—including applauding
their team’s good defensive plays far more than what is typical in most parts … Chiba Lotte Marines fans remind me of the
European soccer model described above. People want to get close to the
endan
because it’s so entertaining and the amount of cheering activity tapers off as you approach home plate” (author interview,
December 20, 2003). Kazuhiro Sasaki, Seattle Mariners baseball pitcher, on Safeco Field: “Here, the fans are really knowledgeable.
They know when to cheer and when to shut up. It’s not mindless, frantic cheering the entire game”
(Japan Times,
December 17, 2003).

About
Wa

Some scholars question the use of concepts like
wa
to describe the Japanese. They argue that modern society in Japan is too varied and too dynamic, especially after exposure
to the West, to be described as a “homogenous society that marches in lockstep,” to quote one historian. As Yale’s Gary D.
Allinson puts it, the “static and superficial stereotypes of Japan, so common in the United States today, stigmatize the Japanese
people and jeopardize our understanding of Japan’s history.” Kyoto-based writer Roger Pulvers speaks of the intersecting of
cultures, not only from overseas to home but to the interaction and intertwining of differing cultures emanating from within
Japan—from the unique traditions of Okinawa and the Korean-influenced arts of Northern Kyushu to the pristine spirituality
of northeast Honshu (
homepage2.nifty.com/uesugihayato
).

Others believe that there are trends in Japan that are distinct from other societies. Tama University president Gregory Clark
talks of a continual emphasis on “tribal” values—gut feelings, direct human relations, instinctive groupism, familial styles
of management, taboos, rules rather than principles, traditions and animistic legends rather than firm ideologies, and so
on. Said highly regarded Tokyo-based business leader Glen Fukushima, of Harvard Law and Business schools, and
Todai,
among a long list of other institutions of higher learning, “While I believe it’s harder now to define the Japanese national
character as it applies to the Japanese, concepts like
shûdan-shugi
(groupism) and
wa
and deference to authority are still relevant to Japan and set Japan apart from most other advanced industrial societies
(i.e., North American and Europe) and even from many other Asian societies. However, I believe the concepts have relevance
as
tendencies
in the society. That is, there may be a larger proportion of individuals in Japanese society than in, say, American society
who are affected by thinking or behavior related to these concepts, but that is not to deny that some Japanese people may
be more ‘individualistic’ and ‘rebellious’ than some Americans.” Added Keio University professor Masaru Ikei, a specialist
in international law and a noted baseball expert, “In Japan, standing up and insisting on your rights is not very popular.
Japan is still a society of ‘wa’ or harmony.”

Some of these tendencies are documented in studies like
“Nihonjin no Kokuminsei no Kenkyu”
(“A Study of the Japanese National Character”) and the public opinion polls conducted every five years by the
Tokei Suri Kenkyujo
(Institute for Statistical Mathematics), which regularly show that filial piety and social obligation outweigh respect for
individual rights. See
“Kokuminsei no Kenkyu Dai 10 Ji Zenkoku Kensa,”
published by the
Tokei Suri Kenkyu Jo,
March 1999, p. 89. Fukushima remarks made in author interview, October 13, 2003. In 2003, the
Asahi Shimbun
conducted its annual survey, in which pollees were asked to describe the character of the Japanese. 54 percent of the respondents
chose the word “warmhearted,” 50 percent “diligent,” 45 percent “cooperative” and 41 percent “honest.” Lowest on the list
came “original” (28 percent) and “independent” (31 percent)
(Asahi Shimbun,
Friday, February 14, 2003).

In a survey conducted in 2003 of citizens of seven countries— the U.S., England, Holland, Germany, France, Italy and Japan—
respondents were asked to rate their most valued ethic. Lowest was the 25 percent scored by the Japanese who citied “individual
rights” as their most valued, some 20 points behind the figure racked up by the French and Italians and some 40 points behind
the Germans and the Americans. The leading ethic was filial piety, with 78 percent of the Japanese and Italians citing it
as most important
(Insight Web
site,
Kanren Chiryo 025, [Nihonjin no Kokuminsei] no shuhen).

About Japanese-American Athletes in the U.S.

There were numerous teams of Japanese-American players on the West Coast in the early part of the century, ranging from Los
Angeles to Vancouver, with names like the Stockton Yamatos and the San Jose Asahi’s. Because of racial discrimination at the
time, these
issei
or first-generation Japanese in America had no place to play, so they built their own baseball grounds and formed their own
leagues. The first such club was founded in San Francisco in 1902 and was called the Fuji club. For more on this subject (100
years’ worth or more), read the fascinating book
Through a Diamond
by Kerry Yo Naka-gawa, Rudi Publishing, 2001. A Japanese Waseda graduate and student at Knox College in Gettysburg, Illinois,
named Goro Mikami and nicknamed “Jap Mikado,” is said to have been the first Japanese to play professional baseball in the
U.S. He played for a club known as the All-Nations, a barnstorming team that included Cubans, American blacks, American Indians,
a Hawaiian and a Filipino— decades before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. He played exhibition games in 1914 and
1915 against teams in the short-lived Federal League (then recognized as a third major league). He was the subject of a 1996
book in Japanese by author Kazuo Sayama entitled
Jap Mikado no nazo,
published by Bungei Shunju.

About Arbitration

The advent, in 1989, of a system of arbitration was equally instructive. Whereas arbitration committees in the United States,
as negotiated by the union, included a neutral, independent, third party (a system that many big league owners complained
was most responsible for the rise in MLB salaries), the newly established Japanese arbitration committee, by contrast, was
composed of the baseball commissioner and the presidents of the two professional leagues. In addition, the player requesting
salary arbitration could not, under the NPB arbitration rules, which forbade agents, employ an attorney during arguments.
It was an arrangement about which the NPBPA remained conspicuously, but not surprisingly, acquiescent. The first player in
NPB history to file for arbitration, at the end of the 1990 season, was the iconoclastic superstar Hiromitsu Ochiai, whose
request for a 25 percent increase in salary for leading the league in home runs was, not unexpectedly, turned down. The subsequent
arbitration report warned that potential imitators of Ochiai should take due caution, stressing that arbitration was not something
to enter into lightly. “I don’t expect to have many more arbitration cases,” said then-commissioner Ichiro Yoshikuni. “It’s
not the Japanese way of doing things.” Subsequent applicants for arbitration could be counted on two hands. In the next dozen
years, there were six applicants, two of whom actually won.

“Unimaginable” Okada quotation in IHT, January 1993. A form of free agency had been allowed, in which players had the option
of changing teams at the 10th- and 14th-year plateaus, in their careers. It was arbitrarily removed in December 1964 with
the inauguration of a draft system, instituted to curtail wild bidding on young amateur talent. “Watanabe didn’t give a damn
about the other teams,” author interview with Shigeyoshi “Steve” Ino in March 2001. “The behavior of people who belong to
a welfare state,” quotation by baseball critic, author interview with Masayuki Tamaki, December 15, 1996. “Publicly scolded
his field manager Shigeo Nagashima for being seen at a dinner party talking to one,” from
Nikkan Sup
tsu,
November 30, 1999. “If one of my players brings an agent into contract negotiations … then we’ll cut his salary,” Tsuneo
Watanabe quotation from
Asahi Shimbun,
November 4, 2000, and
Tokyo Sup
tsu,
November 9, 2000. Another major NPB figure against agents was 400-game-winner Masaichi Kaneda, who wrote in his
Shukan Posuto
column of November 11, 2000, p. 190, “I strongly oppose the use of an agent in salary contract negotations. A player who
can’t negotiate and speak for himself is not a pro!”

About Free Agency

One of the five players who filed for free agency in 1993 was ace pitcher Hiromi Makihara, who was looking for a three-year
deal. However, he obligingly withdrew his free agency application along with his request for a multiyear contract, after a
personal appeal by Giants manager Nagashima—who showed up at Makihara’s front door with a bouquet of freshly cut roses and
his “personal promise” not to trade him for the next three seasons. Makihara, who was quoted as saying he was “deeply moved”
by the “gesture of sincerity” from his famous manager, signed a one-year contract
(Nikkan Sup
tsu,
November 22, 1993). Masayuki Tamaki interview, November 22, 1993. “Bad influence” quotation by Kimiyasu Kudo from Interview
in
Shukan Bunshun,
December 1, 1994, pp. 218-219. Manabu Kitabeppu, a Carp ace eligible to file for free agency, declined to do so, declaring
simply, “I have an obligation to Hiroshima” (quoted in
Asahi Shimbun,
September 28, 1993, p. 23).