Tokyo Junkie

Home of Robert Whiting, best-selling author and journalist

Category: Yukan Fuji

  • Tobaku

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    Robert Whiting (Oct 21, 2015) I have been reading with interest about the gambling scandal in professional baseball. Kyojinfarm team pitcher Fukuda has admitted he bet on baseball and has lost a considerable amount of money at it in the process. A couple of weeks later, two other players on the ni-gun(the farm team) followed suit. An…

  • Otani and Nippon Ham

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    Robert Whiting (Dec 9, 2012) Congratulations to Nippon Ham for making a successful attempt to convince Shohei Otani to stay in Japan instead of going to the MLB as he earlier vowed to do.  It had been widely believed that Otani was going to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers, after he said he would…

  • Coronavirus and the Olympics

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    Robert Whiting (April 2008) – Yukan Fuji When I arrived in Tokyo in 1962, working for the CIA as a 19-year-old member of the U.S. military, the city was an unsightly sprawl of ramshackle wooden houses, rickety  shanties and cheaply constructed stucco-covered buildings that had mushroomed from the wartime detritus left by American B-29 Superfortress bombers. Living conditions…

  • Billion Dollar Blueprint

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    by Robert Whiting (May 8, 2012) – Yukan Fuji Money. Money. Money. MLB is rolling in it, as indicated by the recent sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers for an astonishing $2 billion, an all time record for a major league team. The $2 billion figure is more than double the previous record for an…

  • Unfair Trade Advantage: Anti-Trust Exemption (Part 4 of 4)

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    by Robert Whiting (April 2008) – Yukan Fuji Continuing our discussion of unfair trade advantages, begun in a previous column, the basis thesis, restated, is: MLB enjoys certain benefits under US law and custom that give it a decided advantage over the NPB in competition for the international market for players and for fans. NPB…

  • Unfair Trade Advantage: Salary Deprecation Allowance (Part 3 of 4)

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    by Robert Whiting (April 2008) – Yukan Fuji Continuing our discussion of unfair trade advantages, begun in a previous column, here is the basic thesis re-stated: MLB enjoys certain benefits under US law and custom that give it a decided advantage over the NPB in competition on the international market for players and for fans.…

  • Unfair Trade Advantage: Marlins Stadium, Public Extortion (Part 2 of 4)

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    by Robert Whiting (April 2008) – Yukan Fuji The special treatment MLB teams receive can clearly be seen in the recent case of the Florida Marlins. The Florida Marlins are a baseball club that has had to play in an outdoor stadium in Miami, Marlins Stadium (also home to the NFL Miami Dolphins). For years,…

  • Unfair Trade Advantage: Stadium Subsidies (Part 1 of 4)

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    by Robert Whiting (April 2008) – Yukan Fuji MLB enjoys certain benefits under U.S. law and custom that give it a decided advantage over the NPB in competition for the international market for players and for fans. NPB teams may be poor at making money through baseball, but the gap between them and MLB teams…