Nippon Professional Baseball
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Nippon Professional Baseball (日本野球機構, Nippon Yakyū Kikō; NPB) is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called Puro Yakyū (プロ野球), meaning simply Professional Baseball; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation of the "Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club" (大日本東京野球倶楽部, Dai-Nippon Tōkyō Yakyū Kurabu) in 1934. The first professional circuit for the sport in Japan, the Japanese Baseball League (JBL), was founded two years later and continued to play even through the final years of World War II. The organization that is today's NPB was formed when the JBL reorganized in 1950, dividing its 15 teams into two leagues, which would meet in the annual season-ending Japan Series championship playoff series of games starting that year. NPB consists of twelve teams divided equally in two leagues, the Central League and the Pacific League, a format which it has largely kept since 1957. It has seen several waves of expansion and contraction, sometimes at the same time, to keep it at those numbers; most recently, in 2005, the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes merged with the Orix BlueWave to form the Orix Buffaloes, while the Rakuten Golden Eagles were added as an expansion team. As is common in Asian baseball (and unlike North American leagues), teams are generally named after their corporate owners, such as Yomiuri and Softbank. NPB also oversees two affiliated minor leagues, the Western League and the Eastern League. Since the first Japan Series in 1950, the Yomiuri Giants have the most championships with 22, and the most appearances with 37. Following the 2025 season, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, who defeated the Hanshin Tigers 4–1 in the 2025 Japan Series, are the reigning champions. The Japan Series has been contested 76 times as of 2025, with the series tied between leagues with 38 wins apiece. NPB was the only professional sports league in Japan until the foundation of the J.League in 1993. It is the eleventh-wealthiest professional sport league by revenue in the world, and the second-wealthiest baseball league, behind Major League Baseball (MLB); it is also the wealthiest sports league in Asia. NPB has the second-highest total season attendance of any league, also behind MLB, despite playing considerably fewer games per season.