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The Japanese have transformed America’s pastime into a game that mirrors their obsession with hard work and harmony. The consequences are often alarming. I’ll tell you the big difference between Japan and the U.S. In the U.S. we believe that a player has a certain amount of natural ability and with practice he reaches a certain peak point, but after that…

Japan, as the World Sees It: Batting Out Of Their League by Robert Whiting (Apr 30, 2001) Thanks to an archaic ownership system, Japanese baseball is losing its best players, its fans and its soul. When I first came to Japan back in the 1960s, Japanese professional baseball was in its heyday. It had produced,…

Hideki Matsui: Godzilla Vs. the Americas by Robert Whiting (Apr 28, 2003) It was finally time to face the cameras. Baseball slugger Hideki Matsui looked at the heaving battery of reporters in the banquet room of Tokyo’s plush Imperial Hotel and cleared his throat. Into the breathless silence, he delivered a grim-faced, 40-minute monologue. His…

“Wa” is the Japanese ideal of unity, team play and no individual heroes-a concept that ex-U.S. major-leaguers playing in Japan have had a lot of trouble grasping. I don’t know what it is they play here,” grumbled former California Angel Clyde Wright after his first season as a Tokyo Giant. “All I know is, it…

East Meets West in the Japanese Game of Besuboru by Robert Whiting (Sep 15, 1986) Digitized by Jessica Suchman and Catherine Nissley. It looks much the same on the surface, but in the land of samurai and sumo baseball takes on a whole new dimension. No leisure activity occupies the Japanese as much as besuboru – that’s…

From the Publisher about Robert Whiting by Donald J. Barr (May 15, 1989) Author Robert Whiting has never been exactly conventional when it comes to selecting the locales where he settles in to write. His first book, The Chrysanthemum and the Bat-considered the definitive one on Japanese baseball and also among the best on Japanese culture…

OPINION While critics dismiss royal institution as anachronistic, supporters see it as essential anchorRobert WhitingMAY 17, 2019 15:43 JST Emperor Naruhito performs his first ritual at the Imperial Palace, reporting the date of the enthronement to his ancestors.    © Imperial Household Agency/Kyodo Does Japan need an emperor? That is the question some people might ask as…

ウィキペディア ふたつのオリンピック、ロバート・ホワイティング著、書評、読売新聞、２０１９年１月２１日

Ecstasy in the Ballpark, Review of Robert Whiting’s The Meaning of Ichiro by Chaz Repak, The Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2004 The Pizza Connection, Review of Robert Whiting’s Tokyo Underworld by Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times, May 2, 1999 Review of Warren Cromartie’s (with Robert Whiting) Slugging it out in Japan, Kirkus Reviews,…

Benefits of Japan’s arcane imperial system outweigh costs, by Robert Whiting, Nikkei Asian Review, May 17, 2019 As world’s leading metropolis, Tokyo goes for gold, by Robert Whiting, Nikkei Asian Review, May 8, 2019 How star baseballer’s US success changed postwar Japan, by Robert Whiting, Nikkei Asian Review, April 5, 2019 Negative impact of 1964…