All posts by Jim Allen

sports editor for a wire service in Tokyo
Getting old in Tokyo

Getting old in Tokyo: Crossroads

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It’s cliché, but physically, I am in the best shape of my life. Unfortunately, I will be out of work in six weeks because I will turn 65.

With more than a month of paid holidays coming to me, today will be my last shift at the day job. No more translating, no more checking, done.

The bucho threw me a farewell party Thursday and it was fun but weird. He’s a sweet guy, and my colleagues are kind, but there’s a non-zero chance I may be back, which makes it even stranger.

I had hoped to be able to continue in some capacity at a reduced salary. Our small union within the company that represents annually contracted staff negotiated an opening to allow the company to keep us on after 65.

But the kind bucho told me 10 days ago it would not happen, because we are downsizing. Experienced English-language writers and editors who can read and speak Japanese and know the system and are willing to work cheap are apparently a dime a dozen. Who knew?

With no work left, and the world hardly besieging my inbox, the only thing left at the office is taking part in official negotiations as the union pushes to get the company to face up to the merits of its decision or lack thereof.

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Sasaki move means NPB needs a change

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Roki Sasaki’s posting at the age of 23 is a wonderful opportunity for a player who has tremendous talent and who I believe is not taking it for granted that a huge MLB payday will still be within his reach two years from now.

It is, however, a problem for Nippon Professional Baseball, unless we take what Lotte Marines at their word, that they are happily giving up one of the nation’s greatest pitching talents for a million dollars and change because it feels right to them.

Unfortunately, dealing with this problem is going to take the kind of clever strategic thinking NPB rarely displays, either by negotiating a solution with its union or with MLB, which has frequently rewritten the posting system rules to suit its needs.

“I tell them, every time you sit down in New York with these people (MLB), the big leagues benefit as a league, their clubs benefit, the Japanese players benefit, and you guys (NPB) just bend over and take it.”

— NPB team executive in 2016

I don’t have objective proof that Roki Sasaki signed a contract as an 18-year-old amateur that contractually obligated the Marines to post him at the drop of his hat, but that is the best explanation for Lotte donating a player who makes millions of dollars a year for them to MLB.

I assume such a contract exists in the same way I assume that a guy running out of a bank with bags of money under his arm while alarm bells ring indicates the likely occurrence of a bank robbery.

The interesting thing is that while people allude to the possibility that such a contract might exist, pundits here blamed Sasaki for having the temerity to enforce it rather than the wisdom of having that huge loophole coexist with a posting system that rewards MLB teams for poaching Japan’s youngest stars.

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