Nippon Professional Baseball

Nippon Professional Baseball, or NPB, is the major league baseball organization in Japan. It was founded in 1950, though the earliest baseball teams in Japan date back to 1934. It is divided into two leagues, the Pacific League and the Central League.

Many Japanese baseball players have successfully crossed over into American Major League Baseball, such as Ichiro Suzuki, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideo Nomo, and Hideki Matsui.

List of Teams[edit]

Pacific League[edit]

• Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters
• Orix Buffaloes
• Saitama Seibu Lions
• Chiba Lotte Marines
• SoftBank Hawks
• Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

Central League[edit]

• Yomiuri Giants
• Tokyo Yakult Swallows
• Chunichi Dragons
• Hiroshima Toyo Carp
• Hanshin Tigers
• Yokohama BayStars

Trivia[edit]

• Quite confusingly, Japanese baseball teams are named after the majority shareholding company, not the locale, like American baseball teams are.