Buy me some peanuts, Cracker Jacks, and…sushi? Major League Baseball kicked off this years’ season in a unique location: Tokyo, Japan. The Chicago Cubs faced off against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, March 18 at the Tokyo Dome for the season opener. The Dodgers, still riding the high of their World Series Win last year, beat the Cubs 4-1 on Tuesday and again in Wednesday’s game, 6-3.
Japan is certainly a surprising location to open Major League Baseball, but it is also a smart one. Some of the current hottest stars in baseball are Japanese natives. Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga is a fan favorite in the Windy City and Dodgers hitter/pitcher Shohei Ohtani is the highest paid MLB player (with a rather impressive 10-year 700 million dollar contract). Imanaga and Ohtani, along with Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki and Dodgers pitchers Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, were able to play on home soil in the Tokyo Dome in front of tens of thousands of roaring fans in a truly special homecoming moment. The game opened with a duel between two Japanese stars on the mound, Imanaga vs Yamamoto, for the first time in MLB Opening Day history.
Japan and Baseball history go hand in hand. Baseball was introduced to Japan in the late 1800s, but did not gain widespread popularity until post-WWII. Japan has hosted MLB games before, but nothing quite like the 2025 Tokyo Series. With the addition of many Japanese superstars to the MLB in recent years, baseball fandom has surged throughout the country even more, strengthening the sport’s global impact and popularity. Ohtani is celebrated as a hero in his home country of Japan, his face plastered on nearly every billboard in Tokyo.
It is not just the Japanese players that are becoming popular in Japan, however. In the midst of the Tokyo Dome’s crowd, former Dodger and now Cubs infielder, Justin Turner, spotted two young fans who were dressed up as him, fake bright red beards and all. Turner posed for a photo with the children and gave them an autographed baseball. Thousands more Japanese children watched as their favorite players took the plate, inspiring the next generation of athletes. As a life-long Cubs fan who was watching from home here in the States, I was inspired by these tender moments—a true reminder that baseball is beloved everywhere.
In the spirit of baseball being a global sport, the Tokyo Series blended American culture with Japanese culture beautifully. The pregame celebration was Pokemon themed, with a child resembling the Pokemon main character, Ash Ketchum, throwing out a Pokeball instead of a baseball as a nod to this iconic piece of Japanese pop culture. An army of Pikachu mascots proudly wearing Cubs and Dodgers jerseys provided a bit of comic relief for all of the fans in the stadium. Another cross-cultural collaboration came in the form of special edition merchandise designed by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. American and Japanese baseball fans alike showed off their favorite teams with the new merch before the opening game.
Even though the city of Tokyo (sadly) won’t be flying the W, the Tokyo Series was an impactful cultural event for baseball fans around the world. It leaves the door open for more collaboration between American and Japanese baseball teams and acts as an inspiration for the next generation of baseball players.
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