Baseball Development in Japan

Baseball in Japan is more popular than in the U.S. Although the structure is not as regimented (i.e. no T-ball etc.), more kids play baseball than in the U.S. This is mainly because of the lack of other popular professional sports. Soccer is getting there, but still, baseball is the king. Sumo wrestling is not a "popular" sports for the kids to play. Little league is extremely popular, but before kids get into the little league, they play all variations of baseball (stick ball, etc.) with the neighborhood kids.

The high school championship is a national event. It's like the NCAA basketball tourney in the States. College baseball is also more popular compared to the U.S.

Softball is not very common. Before high school, kids play with nanshiki baseball, a hard rubber ball the size of baseball. Nanshiki yakyu is also used by adults who play for recreation.

The equipment is pretty much the same as in the states. Mizuno, Zett, etc. No Spalding or Rawlings. In my opinion, Japanese equipment is far more superior than that made in the States. More and more major leaguers are switching to Japanese brands.

The rules are the same. As a side note, when we were organizing a baseball league in Central Park NY, I was really surprized that many American kids don't play baseball. Many of them don't even know how to throw a baseball properly. I understand that kids also play basketball and football etc. in the States, but it was sad to see that baseball playing population has definitely gone down in U.S. The only people I was able to recruit for the team were Japanese businessman, Dominican, and Puerto Rican.

The Industrial Leagues in Japan are semi-professional leagues that somewhat function as lower minor leagues.
Each of the 12 major teams in the Central and Pacific Leagues have one corresponding team in the two minor leagues. Because there are only 12 official minor league teams, the Industrial Leagues fulfill an important function.

I failed to mention the two official minor leagues are the Eastern and Western Leagues. The semipro Industrial leagues are in addition to these two professional leagues.

You are forgetting to mention the A-Ball. The rediculous rubber ball used by most kids' leagues. Back in the day I hated playing Japanese teams that insisted on using it rather than a real baseball. Although you could throw a wicked curve with it, it was too small, took bad hops, and elongated on foul tips. It was almost as if you were playing with a squash ball.

In Japan A-ball is called Nashiki or Nankyu which I did mention above. As you mentioned, foul tip with Nankyu really hurts.

Do you know of any youth (8-12) summer baseball camps in Japan?