Decrease in participation for Summer Koshien Regional Tournaments
by Gen on Jul.10, 2010 @ 3:31 pm, under High School
According to the Japan High School Baseball Federation (JHBF), 4,028 high school across Japan are participating in the Summer Koshien Regional Tournaments. That's down 13 from last year.
At its peak (in 2002 and 2003), a total 4,163 high schools participated in the Summer Koshien Regional Tournaments. Since then,
July 13th, 2010 on 9:14 am
The population is decreasing, too. This has no bearing on the popularity of baseball.
July 13th, 2010 on 10:00 am
The population as whole isn’t really declining that quickly.
2004: 127,761,000
2005: 127,773,000
2006: 128,756,000
2007: 127,770,750
2008: 127,704,000
The problem, more specifically, is the declining birth rate and the aging population. In 2005, only 13.7% of the population was between 0-14 years of age. And that’s projected to drop to 9.7% in 2030.
So there is likely a direct correlation between the drop in high school participation and the shrinking population of young people (specifically teens and younger).
BTW: To be clear, I didn’t post this to make it seem like the popularity of baseball in Japan was dropping.
Although I wouldn’t be surprised if popularity was on the decline. At least ever so slightly.I take that back… I don’t really have any facts of figures to back that claim. Plus, I have a feeling that competition on the international level (like the WBC) has actually helped maintain the popularity of the sport.It should also be noted that a drop in TV ratings shouldn’t be confused with a drop in popularity of the sport either. I think the media tries to tie those two things together every now and again.
July 13th, 2010 on 2:36 pm
I’ve heard that when the J-league kicked off maybe ten or fifteen years ago (?) people thought soccer was set to blow baseball away as Japan’s most popular team sport. We can all see how that turned out. I’m pretty sure baseball in Japan will be fine, despite how the media tries to sound the alarm every now and then.