Friday saw a closer’s first career blown save and the last unbeaten team’s first loss. Altogether neither of those items are big news in themselves, the way those two games went down would have driven Japan’s curmudgeon corps to fill the next day’s sports pages with uncontrolled rage for skippers failing to conform to Japanese baseball dogma.

That’s because the blown save in the Hawks-Marines game occurred after SoftBank’s starting pitcher was yanked after (just) 117 pitches and eight shutout innings – heresy back in the day, and because Yakult Swallows skipper Takahiro Ikeyama, who has yet to sacrifice this season (Rule violation No. 1), has been batting his pitchers eighth (Rule violation No. 2), and declined to have his pitcher bunt in a sacrifice situation (Rule violation No. 3).

Japan rules and how to follow them

Since becoming a tour guide last year, I have been following Facebook groups about Japan travel and have marveled to read absolute “truths” about Japan and its culture that display a serious lack of awareness of the Japan’s social dynamics.

Since we’re on the topic of rules, Japanese society is incredibly rule-oriented, and social media pundits often interpret this as “Japanese people always follow the rules.” My favorite example is, “Japanese people take their trash home.”

That is the rule, and when out and about many, many Japanese will lug empty Starbucks cups around with them until they get home – provided they don’t first come across a convenience store whose signs read, “No personal trash in our bins,” because that’s often where it goes.

Continue reading Japan Rules – and games of April 3, 2026 →