Affiliation with Japanese Leagues

Several of the Japanese teams already have affiliations with Major Leagues teams. The (Yomiuri) Giants and Yankees have a working agreement, as do the Buffaloes and Dodgers, and Swallows and Indians off the top of my head. The Hiroshima Carp have their own academy in the Dominican Republic as well.

There may well be interest, but it will come down to what the team can get in return. As for the Giants, Buffaloes, and Swallows mentioned above, the working agreements call for exchanges of information involving training techniques and use of facilities for rehabilitating players. Hiroshima gets affordable, young talent (and it's a pet project of their owner, if I recall correctly).

As for expanding their image into North America, I'm not sure that the teams are really that interested in that. It's a shame, as I know that many Pro Yakyu fans around the globe would love to see NPB do more to promote the game outside of Japan. But the owners are only interested in the local market. They've done nothing to make me think that they're intersted in expanding globally (dashing my hopes of seeing a Pacific Rim League, a proposal of mine to help make the game more appealing to a broader audiance). I'm afraid that you may need to focus a sales' pitch in a different direction.

Please keep in mind that I'm a computer programmer who happens to be a big fan of Japanese baseball. Being able to read and understand Japanese are the only "expert" qualifications I have. The business side of things don't interest me, so I don't read up on that too much. When making a business decision, please weigh these factors into any comments I may make. As much as I hope my comments are useful, they shouldn't be considered "expert opinion."

Gambatte.