Time Machine: U.S. interest in Japanese baseball coincided with peak of Japan's economic bubble

This story originally appeared in the Japanese magazine Shukan Asahi in February 1989.

TOKYO — We are living in the era of Japan: the richest nation in the world, highest per capita income, the lowest crime rate, and the longest life expectancy in the world.

In America, where Japanese own two-thirds of Honolulu, SF and LA, things Japanese are decidedly “in.” Japanese are preferred customers at Manhattan’s most popular and exclusive nightclubs and discotheques, because of their ready cash, high fashion and image of style, and sophistication. Moreover, as American society increasingly becomes one in which people have to work in groups, not alone (rugged individualism being replaced by corporate meetings and group decision) American businessmen are looking more and more to the experts on group behavior and dynamics, the Japanese, to tell them how to manage their companies.

Amidst all this is also a new interest in the way Japanese play baseball.