What are Fans of Each Team Like?

I'm surprised no one replied to this. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to extol the virtues of the fans of one's favorite team, or disparage the fans of a rival.

No one has replied as the answer is pretty complex. Fans vary from team to team of course, but here are a few generalisations.

Currently Japanese baseball support is in a transition period - owners are waking up to the fact that teams are not just advertising expenses but can in fact generate money. This is a slow process and follows a business model similar to that of J-League. The team is based on a region and draws its support from that region. Some teams are more advanced than others in this process.

The most fanatical fans are those of the Hanshin Tigers - the premier regional team. Long ago Hanshin positioned itself as the symbol of Kansai resistance to the domination of Kanto. This allowed them to tap into the view that Kansai is different from Tokyo (their great rivals are the Yomiuri Giants) and exploit it. The Hanshin Tigers pretty much have the majority of support in Kansai, so much so that other teams struggle to attract support from the region. The fans are friendly and very noisy, but a Tigers game is a great experience especially at Koshien - the Tigers' home ground. Fans also travel to other grounds in large numbers.

Other teams successfully following the regional model are the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, (Nagoya) Chunichi Dragons, and Chiba Lotte Marines. Of these perhaps the Marines fans are the liveliest, though the Golden Eagles have proven a great hit in their home in the Tohoku region.

Of the other teams, only the Yomiuri Giants had a strategy which was based on their TV broadcasting rights, through which it was to become the team for all Japan. For a while this worked very successfully (though they could never challenge the Tigers for support in Kansai). Their fans tend to be more restrained and in decline now. Televised games no longer attract the audiences that they did, and other teams can no longer rely on Giants support to fill their stadiums. The Giants are perhaps the team with the biggest problems in that they haven't worked out a way to reach out to their huge support in the Kanto region (where they remain very strong). They continue to be committed to the all-Japan model of support and haven't yet come to terms with its obsolescene. Faced with declining TV audiences and a series of weak teams, the Giants are in trouble and need to revamp their strategy to reach out to their support.

Of the other teams - the Yakult Swallows, Orix Buffaloes, and Hiroshima Toyo Carp are the least supported. The Carp have the poorest marketing of all clubs and are unable to exploit their regional base in Hiroshima. The Swallows are also based in Tokyo and do not seem to want to establish any regional identity beyond the small area they play in. Their fans are probably the quietest. Orix are based in Osaka [and Kobe] and struggle for support - they have a very small, quiet fan base and have to compete with the Tigers. The Seibu Lions located their ground in the middle of nowhere (a dormitory town) and have been paying for this ever since. They do not get much support as it is too far for most fans to travel. Finally I should mention the BayStars based in Yokohama. They have adopted the regional model as well and are making steady progress in exploiting it, especially as they have to compete with the Giants for support.

Japanese fans are probably the most organised in the world. They have specific chants for each player which the supporters all sing in unison. Some supporters have also adopted specific symbols for their teams. Most Tigers supporters carry a pair of large plastic bats which they bang together in unison generating enormous amounts of noise. They also release long ballons which make a whistling sound just before the Tigers' half of the seventh inning and at the end of the match if they win. Other teams' supporters also use these balloons (Seibu Lions, Softbank Hawks, Rakuten Golden Eagles, Hiroshima Carp, and maybe Chunichi Dragons), but not in the same numbers. Take a look at the Tigers website to see a photo of these things. Swallows supporters carry small green umbrellas which they open and wave around when their team scores, and Giants supporters have small orange towels.

I hope this has given you a general overview and better picture of fans in Japan.

Thanks so much for the response. I realized that the question was very complex, but I was hoping that a bunch of people could all throw in their 2 cents and draw a general picture for me. What you wrote really helps.

Hello,

I visited Japan in August and was able to take in two games in Tokyo: The Hanshin Tigers vs. Yakult Swallows and then the Carp vs. the Giants.

I would say that the Tigers are the most popular team right now. I arrived in Osaka, and Tiger stuff was everywhere (plus right now it's their 70th anniversary).

At the Tigers-Swallows game in Tokyo, Hanshin fans greatly over-numbered the Swallow fan. That said, Swallows do have a very loyal fanbase, albeit small. I was lucky to have a friend who spoke with some Swallow fans. They like their small team outlook. They have gained a lot thanks to the Giants' failures.

At the Giants game, the home team greatly out-numbered the few Carp fans. I had to settle for standing room only tickets, so that tells you something, that this game between two bad teams was sold-out.

I saw plenty of Tiger and Giant mechanise everywhere; even in Osaka the poor Orix Buffaloes had little/no presence; I couldn't even get a hat.

Thanks - your post is really helpful!

I've only been to games in Kitakyushu and Fukuoka - two major strongholds for the Hawks - but the atmosphere for their games are one of the best in Japanese baseball (I could make an argument that the Dome has the best atmosphere in the Pacific League, but Marines' supporters probably hold that honor). But they are one of the teams here that consistently sells out for home games.

The teams that represent their region usually have the most passionate support.

I did catch somewhere that Swallows fans wave umbrellas when their team hits a home run (because the pitcher needs to hit the showers?). There's a great clip of this following Iwamura's home run in tonight's game (September 21) on the clip on the Giants website [Link]. Click on the bottom one.

Actually, that was an exciting game, won by the Giants in the 12th, so the highlights are fun to watch. If you want to see it, go quickly though, I think it'll be gone sometime before the start of the next game (they don't play tomorrow, so I'm not sure when they'll take it down).

Enjoy!

Marines fans are the most fanatical actually. We have songs for each player and make plenty of noise without all the noisemaking devices the Tigers use. And we are considered the 26th player on the team (#26 has been retired in our name).

Sit with Marines fans in right field and you'll really feel solidarity in their motto of "Marines is my life." Marines fans are known to be the liveliest fans around. We're a crazy bunch!

Yeah you guys are great fans, I'll give you that. I had a lot of fun sitting with the Marines fans at a game at the Osaka Dome this season.

I wouldn't say they outdo 54,000 torackichi at Koshien, but fan for fan, they would give Tigers fans a shake! Very friendly, too - even when I told them I was a Tigers fan.

- Marines fans are the most fanatical actually.

Yes, as a Tigers fan, I'd have to admit that this year, Marines fans have surprisingly outdone even the famed Hanshin fanaticism.

But that's this year, with most things going right for the club. The true test will be when they hit a rough patch. How would the fans react then? Even in the lean years of the mid to late 1990s, Hanshin fans consistently came out to the ballpark in huge numbers, with no loss of enthusiasm. Even in September, when the team had secured last place in the standings for yet another year.

That's true fanaticism in my view.

In addition to the Marines reserving #26 for the fans, the Rakuten Eagles have done this with #10.

Just before the season, I had the chance to talk with some people connected to the team and tried to talk them out of using 10, since in the Pacific League there are already 10 people in the game (9 positions on the field plus the DH), and that the fan was actually the 11th player. Needless to say they wouldn't hear of it.

I think they borrowed this from the J-League, where several teams have set #12 aside for the fans, who represent the "12th man." At first I thought it was silly, but I guess it's nice to be able to wear a jersey with the "fans' number" on it and not have to worry about the player retiring or being traded!

Talking with other Japanese from eastern Japan (Tokyo on north to Hokkaido), the general consensus is that Osaka and its surrounding areas (Hanshin Tiger area) is like a foreign country. Many foreigners like it because Osakans will tell you what they think, much like "back home" for them. Tokyoites are shocked at how nobody stands in a line for the trains, and that they don't even let people off the train before rushing on. Kansai culture doesn't hold anything back.

I heard on the radio this morning that officials are setting up tall fenses over bridges in the area in anticipation of jumpers. No, not jumping because life is over from disappointment, but jumping out of jubilation. It was estimated that 5,000 people jumped into the muddy river in 2003, the same river that still holds the statue of Colonel Sanders despite numerous attempts to find him since 1985. (I told my daughter about the Curse of the Colonel recently, she thought I made it up.) Merchants in the area are also preparing for riot crowds. When a team from any other region wins, the local merchants are preparing for Victory Sales.

I have two images firmly planted in my brain regarding Hanshin fans. In the midst of their depressing latter half of the 1990s, one fan threw a radio-cassette recorder onto the field at Tokyo Dome when the game started getting away from the Tigers. The other was Hanshin fans littering Yokohama Stadium after a ball hit one of the oen flags in left field and was called a home run (for the BayStars).

There is no doubt that Hanshin fans are passionate about their team. But I just don't understand why they insist on being so mean spirited toward one another as on this thread. Are Tiger fans fatalistic? They've got a winning season, yet aren't at all happy with how the team is playing or being managed. I think that they just don't know how to deal with that strange emotion known as happiness.

I think it's important not to generalise too much. Sure, Osaka is a rougher place than genteel Tokyo, but I think the train cliche is a little exaggerated. In my 15 years living in Kansai, I don't think I've ever seen an example of commuters not lining up for the train, and they're just as polite to alighting passengers as those on the Tokyo subway system, which can be fairly frantic in rush hour.

Violence? Well, let's compare Osaka to Detroit or Chicago. When either of those cities wins a sports championship, they destroy dozens of police cars at a time, set fire to things, murder each other, and generally act like thugs. Osaka crowds are enthusiastic, but on the whole very well behaved. They have fun, but are not really that wild.

But I have to agree that the thread Westbaystars refers to is rather meanspirited. Myself, I've always been confident about their chances, and prepared to give the players and manager the benefit of the doubt.

Some you win, some you lose.

- Violence? Well, let's compare Osaka to Detroit or Chicago.

I'm distressed to discover this is your perception of Chicago sports fans. There were minor riots after the Bulls won their first championship back in 1991, and those incidents were embarrassing. But the Bulls did win five more titles and there were no riots to speak of after those. There were no riots after the Bears won the Super Bowl in 1985, either. Have you ever been to Chicago?

- I think it's important not to generalise too much.

Indeed.

A thought that came up to my mind as I read this thread. We all know that the Japanese baseball fans are the most organized in the world. But are there any sections of any team's support that act similar to soccer hooligans?

I remember the now-infamous game in Gifu between Hanshin and Chunichi in 2003, where even tear gas was used. It must have been a very scary moment for everyone who was at the game. Although there hasn't been any incidents like that since then, there is still a chance that these types of "fans" might exist today.

On the subject of Hanshin fans.

The only time I've witnessed violence (including a few broken noses) at Jingu stadium is when the Tigers have been the visitors. Some of the more sensitive members of the Yakult faithful won't go to Jingu when the Tigers visit for this reason.

I remember one game during the Tigers "comeback" 2003 winning season. There were so many Tigers fans trying to squeeze into Jingu that a number of them took up residence in the right-field seats just to the right of the scoreboard, so many Yakult regulars couldn't take their seats. Now Yakult fans may be small in number, but we are pretty loyal, and the one thing that riles the inhaibitants of the Jingu right-field stands is when seats that should be for Swallows fans are being taken up by one of the "Big Two" teams' fans when they have the rest of our little stadium to sit in. This didn't go down too well with the Yakult faithful and lead to some of the previously mentioned violence.

And talking of Hanshin fanatisism, I don't remember such a clamour for seats at Jingu during the Tigers' lean years. The Tigers brought about as many fans as the BayStars or Carp in those years. Many Kanto-Hanshin fans soon came out of the woodwork at a sniff of success.

- And talking of Hanshin fanatisism, I don't remember such a clamour for seats at Jingu during the Tigers' lean years. The Tigers brought about as many fans as the BayStars or Carp in those years. Many Kanto-Hanshin fans soon came out of the woodwork at a sniff of success.

Well of course I was speaking of the Koshien crowd. I must admit I've never been to Jingu, so I don't really know how many fans used to turn out, but the fans certainly used to turn up to Koshien. Not in the same numbers as in the past few years of course, but much better than you would have expected of a perennial cellar-dweller.

- Well of course I was speaking of the Koshien crowd.

I know you were. One could never question the fanatisim of the Koshien crowd!

I think that the resurgence of the Tigers combined with the decline of the all-powerful Giants in recent years, has lead to it being quite "cool" for someone in Kanto to be a Hanshin fan. Quite a few of the people I know are Hanshin fans despite having no link to the Kansai area in anyway.

I have been at Jingu and heard Yakult fans complaining that Hanshin fans are trespassing on sacred ground. This was in 2004 when we weren't doing so well but the support was still turning out. Given that Yakult's catchment area is basically Aoyama (a small district in Tokyo) one cannot be too surprised if Hanshin fans overspill. There are a lot of Osaka people working in Tokyo and they don't give up their No. 1 loyalty.

On the subject of fan violence - I have seen a Hanshin fan get angry because Yokohama were gaining on the Tigers (he threw his bats onto the field and was arrested). These incidents are shocking because they are so rare - that kind of thing would not merit any attention at an English soccer match.

I tend to prefer the Japanese approach to support - it is mostly friendly and there is a recognition that every player contributes. Japanese supporters are welcoming and warm and games are great fun. They mostly display a similar level of fanaticism without the attendant unpleasantness that western fans seem able to achieve.

But anyway - speaking as a Hanshin fan, I am very happy with both the team management and player selection.

Interesting question. When I came to Japan, I had no idea who would become my team. I was initially living in Sapporo in the 1990s, when there was no team there, making the choice more difficult. The first game I went to was the Lions vs. Blue Wave, and I almost fell asleep. Japanese baseball didn't hook me right away.

Then in 1998 I went to my first Tigers game in Sapporo. After a Tiger's victory - rare in that era - some fans ran onto the baseball field and stole second base. Although it was one of the stupidest and immature things I have seen in a baseball stadium, I knew I wanted to root for a team with such passionate fans.

They were definitely the Red Sox or Cubs of Japan. Although it has become a bit trendy to be a Tigers fan - a lot of their away games are almost like home games - they're still my team.

By the way, finding a team to root against was much easier. The Giants are obviously also the Yankees of Japan, even more annoyingly so as, for a while, it was the only team you could see on TV. Fortunately, now living in Kansai, I can see my nightly Tigers games, or at least until 9:24 that is.

I won't say anything about the Tigers fans because I've been to a game where I've seen them en masse. Of the groups of fans I've seen:

Chunichi- My people, good fans. Somebody bought me a beer at one of the games and they love their team.

Yakult- probably my favorite group of fans because they showed great sportmanship with the cheer for Chunichi at the end of the last game with them last year, wishing them luck. Very gracious.

Lotte- Rowdy and passionate. I hate the gimmicky stuff that's becoming popular in baseball, and Lotte does it bigger than anyone else I've seen, but they have good fans.

Seibu- not very passionate outside of the outfield. Even the Nihon Series was half Chunichi/half Seibu in Tokorozawa. They have a ton of success so you'd figure there would be some excitement. I live in Saitama and there's no mention of them in my area.

Yomiuri- The only time they seem to get excited is when the theme songs come on. I don't know if going to a Giants game is a status thing, like Lakers fans or what.

Orix/Nippon Ham- Not a huge presence. I saw them in Tokyo, so there weren't too many fans. Small but vocal.

Rakuten- Very lively group.

Lotte fans are great. They have good chants.

I have noticed at Jingu, in the Yakult cheering section at the back, there is this group who wave the Japanese flag. They wear a special uniform. I have often wondered if they were a right winged group.

- I have noticed at Jingu, in the Yakult cheering section at the back, there is this group who wave the Japanese flag. They wear a special uniform. I have often wondered if they were a right winged group.

I think the guys in the uniforms are just the hardcore Yakult Oendan. All the guys with flags/trumpets wear the jump suit style uniform. They also wave numerous Yakult flags as well as the Hinomaru.

I'm pretty sure they aren't any kind of right winged group.

Had to get my two cents into this one. I think going to baseball games in Japan is a great experience, and I hope everyone on this board will get a chance to go to at least a couple.

I've been to seven teams' home games in Japan, sat in the right field home team oen-dan sections for four. Here's a run down:

Hanshin: Great reputation for enthusiasm, but I always had a hard time following the game while I was concentrating on cheering (in the right stands). I got more into the games when I was watching the games in a Hanshin izakaya with some real die-hards.

Kintetsu (now defuct): I thought the Buffaloes fans were the friendliest of all the fans I met, even moreso than the Tigers fans. I always had a good time at Buffaloes games, but Osaka was a Tigers' town. When Kintetsu won in 2001, you barely noticed. But the whole city went nuts in 2003 when the Tigers won.

Orix (Blue Wave, Green Stadium Kobe): Easily the most beautiful ball park in Japan, but hard to get to. Losing Ichiro seemed to kill the Wave's following. The one time I went there in 2002, the oen-dan consisted of literally two people. It was too bad, because it was a beautiful evening and a good game.

Yakult: I remember seeing that Hi-no-maru at a Swallows' game at Koshien back in 2002. I asked someone why they had it, and he thought it was because Yakult had been NPB champions in 2001. I went to Jingu in 2003, and didn't notice it, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. The thing that sticks out in my mind about Yakult fans is that weird umbrella dance they do when the Swallows score a run.

Nippon Ham (Tokyo Dome): I saw the Fighters back when they still played in Tokyo. The right field stands had a pretty good crowd, but the rest of the stadium was pretty empty. Instead of the normal oen-bats, they used inflatable ones that didn't make much noise at all.

Chiba Lotte: Saw them just a couple weeks ago, and it was one of the more interesting games I've been to. This was the only time I've heard the Japanese National Anthem at a game. The fans are a bit different, too - they don't use any oen-bats, just clap, sing, and wave towels. Also their white uniforms kind of make them look like a gospel choir.

Kyojin: Saw them just last week, too. It's amazing how far they've fallen, but they still get a decent crowd. The die-hards are still pretty into it, but the rest of the crowd is pretty casual; whereas pretty much everyone at a Tigers game is ready to go nuts. The scoreboard and stuff is more like a major league park than anywhere else I've been in Japan.

Of all those places, I like Hanshin and Lotte the best. I've hear the fans in Fukuoka are great as well. That'd be a great Nippon Series.

My team, I used to live near Koshien. But I rarely used to visit because I could not follow the game. It was better to sit in front of TV and watch. But being passionate fan, I even broke my remote control out of anger and frustration.

The few times I had been to koshien, I broke the chanting plastic drummers. Sports needs such enthusiasm, that's why I rooted for Hanshin, and always will.

I became a fan of Hanshin by watching their fans.