Time Machine: The evolution of ice hockey in Japan

This story originally appeared in the December 1985 edition of Winds — the inflight magazine of Japan Air Lines.

TOKYO — When the baseball Seibu Lions were wrapping up their first Japan Series Crown one glorious afternoon in the fall of 1982, conspicuously absent was club owner Yoshiaki Tsutsumi. He was attending an early-season ice hockey game instead.

According to reports, Tsutsumi left his seat only briefly, to view the Lions’ moment of triumph on TV, then returned to what he obviously considered more important business.

In a country where baseball is overwhelmingly the national sport, Tsutsumi’s behavior that day was regarded as more than a little bizarre — even sacrilegious by some. Yet, he was merely keeping his own kind of faith, enjoying a pastime that has been gaining a steady foothold in Japan, one that, some would say, particularly suits the Japanese as the fastest team sport in the world.