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The story
On November 15, 2026, in the final of the 2026 Asia Professional Baseball Championship at the Tokyo Dome, Samurai Japan defeated South Korea 5-1 to claim their third consecutive title. Nishikawa opened the scoring with a home run, Masaki kept up an incredible streak by homering in all four of the team’s tournament games, and starter Takahashi pitched a strong game, allowing just one run over seven innings. On 5ch, fans praised the standout plays, but the final’s announced attendance of only 36,022 sparked talk of “empty seats,” comparisons to soccer’s popularity, and debate over the decline of Korean baseball.
[Samurai Japan] Japan crushes South Korea to win it all, claiming a third straight title! Nishikawa’s go-ahead homer, Masaki homers in his 4th straight game, starter Takahashi pitches well, 7 innings and just 1 run allowed
◇Rakuzasu Asia Professional Baseball Championship 2026, Final: Japan 5–1 South Korea (November 15, 2026, Tokyo Dome)
Japan’s pitching and hitting clicked together to beat South Korea convincingly and lock up a third straight tournament title.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
[Baseball] 12-game losing streak (with one draw mixed in) against Japan… Korea's manager, winless in 11 years, admits "their level is lower than Japan's" but vows fighting spirit: "If we go all-out, we have a shot" [Asia CS] [11/14] [Insect Encyclopedia★]
https://lavender.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/news4plus/1794611329/
Ko-rea Ko-rea Ko-rea♪ Ko-rea Ko-rea Ko-rea Ko-rea Ko-rea♪
The other five Pacific League teams all have total payrolls somewhere between 3.8 and 4.2 billion yen, but this one team alone has a payroll of over 8 billion yen.
And yet the blind fanboys are all "the Hawks are soooo strong!"
"Team X is trash, way too weak lol"
What's even fun about that?
Only people from Fukuoka would root for a team like this.
@
What's with all these empty seats at the Samurai Japan final?? Isn't that bad?? pic.x.com/0pXSX1ZNqo
https://x.com/businesscame/status/2121910010909467111?utm_source=yjrealtime&;utm_medium=search
Those empty seats are brutal!
Unpopular, half-empty-stadium Samurai lol
Japan, South Korea, Australia, Czech Republic, China
■WBC 2026 Tokyo Round
Japan, South Korea, Australia, Czech Republic, Taiwan
■Asia Professional Baseball Championship 2026
Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan
All held at the Tokyo Dome
They used to always give Japan a real fight.
Korean soccer's gotten weaker too — maybe it's the falling birthrate?
Apparently in Korea even PE class can affect your exam scores, so there was so much complaining that kids just use the period to study now instead.
That's probably shaped the mindset that sports = a waste of time.
In Korea only the elite kids ever do sports,
so the grassroots base never grows.
There's absolutely none of that.
Worth it just for finding the Samurai's legendary sword, Masamune.
It's a song about a couple breaking up, yet it became a baseball theme song.
For reference:
2024 Soccer Asian Cup, quarterfinal: 23.6%
2026 Soccer Asian Games, final: 16.6%
This tournament's more like East Asian Championship level.
Asia Professional Baseball Championship 2026
Final attendance: 36,022
It's the final and they couldn't even fill 50,000?
It even lost out to a soccer friendly held in Singapore lmaooo
Baseball's just not generating any buzz at all, is it.
Wait, this is supposed to be an international tournament…?
Soccer (yesterday)
Baseball's is a U-25 squad with zero players from overseas leagues — as a "national team" it's basically Japan's 4th or 5th string. Be honored you're even comparing it to soccer's best lineup.
This guy's better than Ohtani.
He's not even human.
SoftBank doesn't allow the posting system, and he's still 5 years from free agency, so he can't go.
Since it's hosted in Japan, they should've put it in prime time.
I had stuff going on during the day and couldn't watch.
Because there was no way baseball could beat soccer (in the ratings).
Background and Key Points of This Topic
The Asia Professional Baseball Championship is a separate tournament from WBC qualifying, contested by four countries — Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia — at the Tokyo Dome. The 2026 edition was held at the same venue as past Tokyo Rounds of the WBC (2023 and 2026). The final’s announced attendance of 36,022 fueled comparisons like “there were a lot of empty seats” and “it even lost to a soccer friendly,” but that’s largely an impression shaped by comparing it to the Tokyo Dome’s roughly 55,000 capacity — it isn’t an unusually low turnout for a weeknight international tournament. The TV-ratings talk is also just “reference” figures pulled from past soccer tournaments, not actual numbers for this game, which is easy to misread. Masaki’s “homer in all four games” means he hit a home run in every single game Japan played in the tournament, and starter Takahashi’s seven innings with just one run allowed was effectively the outing that won the game.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread “[Baseball] Samurai Japan beats South Korea to win it all! Third straight title. Nishikawa’s go-ahead homer, Masaki homers in 4 straight games, starter Takahashi pitches well with 7 innings, 1 run allowed. Asia CS.”
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