In my last two posts dealing with the differences between baseball in Japan and the United States, I discussed the history behind Japan’s unwavering allegiance to one-run tactics, and its almost unique penchant for obsessive attention to detail as it applies to practice.

These phenomena achieved their maximum expression in the 1980s and ’90s, in a management style known as “kanri yakyu,” or controlled baseball.

This bastard child of small-ball history and the “kodawari” obsession with detail was the brainchild of a former star infielder for the Yomiuri Giants, Tatsuro Hirooka, who led two previously underperforming franchises to Japan Series championships.

Hirooka has recently distanced himself from the more indefensible tactical aspects of his dogma, stating in 2023 interview with Hall of Fame manager Hiromitsu Ochiai that his focus was solely on management techniques and not on all the other nonsense kanri yakyu espoused.

Kanri yakyu was a product of its time as pro baseball’s answer to the quality control movement that allowed its industrial exports to enjoy huge growth in the 1970s. It was a scientific approach to the game that dictated what players should eat, how they should train and the offensive roles and styles appropriate to players depending on their body type.

Continue reading The kanri yakyu curse →