TV ratings for Game 6 of the Nippon Series was released by Video Research today.

For the Kanto region: 23.3% / max 38.8%

For the Sapporo region: 38.3% / max 56.6%

For the Kansai region: 16.5% / max 28.6%

The max values were taken the month the Giants won the Nippon Series.

Source: Sponichi 11/5/2012, Daily Sports 11/5/2012

Some updates from July 24 (post will be updated throughout the day, as needed):

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As a winner of the SKYACTIV Technology Award, Katsuki Akagawa (Yakult) received a brand new car.  One problem: he does not have a license.

Said Akagawa, "I do not have a driver's license.  I do plan on getting one this year though...  I will give [the car] to my parents."

Source: Daily Sports 7/24/2012

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Akagawa became the fifteen player in All-Star history to toss three perfect innings and the first player in Swallows' history to toss three perfect innings during an All-Star game.

Central League pitchers also hurled nineteen consecutive shutout innings between the 2nd inning of Game 1 and the 2nd inning of Game 2.  That is the second longest streak in All-Star history (the PL holds the record with twenty-five consecutive shutout innings in 1952).

Source: Sponichi 7/24/2012

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Yoshinobu Takahashi (Yomiuri) became the first outfield in All-Star history to commit two errors in one game: a fielding error in the 3rd inning and a fielding error in the 4th inning.  Source: Sponichi 7/24/2012

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Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (Yakult) hit a home run during Game 3 on Monday and...

• ...now has two career All-Star homers, which is good for second on Yakult's All-time list (behind Roberto Petagine's three and tied with Norichika Aoki and Alex Ramirez's two a piece).
• ...gave the Swallows eighteen All-Star home runs.
• ...made him the first Yakult to hit an All-Star home run out of the clean-up spot.
• ...made him the first player from the Tohoku region to hit a home run in an All-Star game taking place at a stadium in the Tohoku region (out of four games, three in Sendai and one in Iwate).
• ...gave him his first Tohoku region home run in twenty games (regular season and All-Star games).

Source: Sponichi 7/24/2012

A third year junior high school baseball player from Kamaishi, Iwate caught Hatakeyama's home run.  Source: Nikkan Sports 7/24/2012

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Dai-Kang Yoh (Nippon Ham) hit his second All-Star home run of the year on Monday and became the seventh player to hit two or more home runs in his first All-Star Series (first in Fighters' franchise history).  He also joined Isao Harimoto (1962), Toshizo Sakamoto (1972), Katsuo Osugi (1972), Junichi Kashiwabara (1982), and Atsunori Inaba (2011) as the only players in Fighters' franchise history to hit two home runs during an All-Star Series (franchise high).

Yoh is the seventh player in franchise history to win an All-Star MVP and the third in franchise history to win an All-Star MVP in his first series (behind Harimoto in 1960 and Osugi in 1967).

Source: Sponichi 7/24/2012

Yoh also appears to be the first player in All-Star history to collect four RBIs out of the lead-off spot.  Source: Nikkan Sports 7/24/2012

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Daisuke Miura (Yokohama) threw his slow curve fives times on Monday night.  Source: Nikkan Sports 7/24/2012

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Kiyoshi Nakahata may not have wanted Miura (Yokohama) to pitch three innings on Monday.

When reporters informed him that Miura got hit in the 3rd inning, he replied, "I thought they decided on two innings.  There is [Miura's] next regular season game to think about so [I wanted him to pitch] as few innings as possible..."

Source: Sponichi 7/24/2012

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Hitoki Iwase (Chunichi) did not make an appearance in any of the three All-Star games this year (discomfort in left elbow).  The last player that made the roster but did not play in any All-Star games: Kazuo Fukumori in 2007.  Source: Sports Hochi Osaka 7/24/2012

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TV Ratings for the All-Star Series...

Game 1, TV Asahi - Kanto region: 10.8%, Kansai region: 13.5%

Game 2, TV Asahi - Kanto region: 10.8%, Kansai region: 12.4%

Game 3, Fuji TV - Kanto region: 9.6%

Game 1 last year was broadcast on TBS and pulled in ratings of 13.0% in Kanto and 16.9% in Kansai.

Source: Daily Sports 7/24/2012, Daily Sports 7/24/2012

TV ratings for all 7 games of the 2011 Nippon Series have been announced as follows:

Game 1 (Fuji TV)

12:50 - end
Kanto Region - 9.2%
Nagoya Region - 18.5%
Northern Region of Kyushu - 25.8%

Game 2 (Tokyo TV)

18:00 - 18:59
Kanto Region - 7.0%
Nagoya Region - 16.6%
Northern Region of Kyushu - 23.5%

19:00 - end
Kanto Region - 9.1%
Nagoya Region - 21.6%
Northern Region of Kyushu - 32.1%

Game 3 (Fuji TV)

18:00 - end
Kanto Region - 11.4%
Nagoya Region - 25.9%
Northern Region of Kyushu - 31.8%

Game 4 (TBS)

18:30 - end
Kanto Region - 12.2%
Nagoya Region - 25.4%
Northern Region of Kyushu - 33.7%

Gmae 5 (TV Tokyo)

18:00 - 18:59
Kanto Region - 6.7%
Nagoya Region - 12.2%
Northern Region of Kyushu - 20.6%

19:00 - end
Kanto Region - 10.6%
Nagoya Region - 15.9%
Northern Region of Kyushu - 34.0%

Game 6 (TV Asahi)

18:11 - end
Kanto Region - 14.1%
Nagoya Region - 23.4%
Northern Region of Kyushu - 37.2%

Game 7 (TBS)

18:30 - end
Kanto region, TBS - 18.9%, topped out at 35.8% at 10:04pm
Nagoya region - 27.4%, topped out at 39.6% at 9:55pm and 9:57pm
Northern region of Kyushu - 44.4%, topped out at 62.6% at 10:07pm and 10:08pm (around the time Akiyama was tossed into the air).

Note: additional data for Game 7 taken from Daily Sports.

TV ratings for the first two games of the Nippon Series are in:

Game 1

Kanto region, Fuji TV - 9.2%
Nagoya region - 18.5%
Northern region of Kyushu - 25.8%

Game 2

Kanto region , TV Tokyo - 7.0% at 6pm and then 9.1%
Nagoya region - 21.6%
Northern region of Kyushu - 32.1%

Nippon TV (NTV) president Yoshio Okubo held his regularly quarterly press conferences on Monday and offered his congratulations to newlywed couple Maki Mori (NTV reporter) and Hirokazu Sawamura (Yomiuri Giant).

Okubo also announced that the TV ratings for the nine Yomiuri Giants' games they broadcast this year averaged 9.8%, up 1.6% from last year's 8.2%.

Video Research announced the TV ratings for Climax Series games broadcast on NHK-BS1 on 10/29 and 10/30.

October 29th

Seibu Lions at Nippon Ham Fighters - 4.8% (afternoon game)

Yomiuri Giants at Yakult Swallows - 8.4% (night game)

October 30th

Seibu Lions at Nippon Ham Fighters - 3.3% (afternoon game)

Yomiuri Giants at Yakult Swallows - 8.1% (night game)

Incidentally, these are considered fairly good ratings, considering the time slot (for the Seibu - Lions games) and the fact that they were broadcast by a BS channel.

TV ratings from Saturday's Masahiro Tanaka vs Yuki Saito game are in:

NHK (Tohoku region) - 23.4%

Hokkaido Bunka Hoso (Sapporo region) - 22.3%; and 52.4% of TV sets that were turned on were tuned into the game

Fuji TV (Kanto region) - 7.8%

These ratings are considered really good in Japan, especially on a weekend afternoon.

Chunichi Dragons

Kazuhiro Wada took extra BP after full team workouts at Yahoo Dome today.

Hanshin Tigers

The Tigers traveled from Sendai to Sapporo in the morning and worked out at Sapporo Dome in the afternoon today.  Everyone took part in the practices (veterans and foreign player included).

Yomiuri Giants

Nippon TV president Noritada Hosokawa told reporters that Giants' broadcasts are doing slightly better than last season at 10.3% (up about 1.2% from 9.1%).  Giants games have also done better at other channels across the board at 10%, up about 0.7% from last year.

Yakult Swallows

The Swallows announced that they'll be hosting Natsu-da! Kagairyoko-dan! H.I.S. Day (夏だ！　海外旅行だ！　エイチ・アイ・エスＤＡＹ) on 6/5 (vs Rakuten).  Fans will be able to compete in mini games for prizes like autographed player memorabilia and free roundtrip tickets to Seoul, Korea.  One Piece's Luffy will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Yokohama Bay Stars

Shogo Yamamoto will likely start tomorrow's game against the Orix Buffaloes.  He'll look to try and stop Yokohama's 10-game losing streak against Orix (going back to 2008).

Chunichi Dragons

Tony Blanco spent about 1.5 hours working on his hitting at Nagoya Stadium today.  Blanco has struggling at the plate so far this year: 6-for-35 with 10 strikeout and 2 walks.  He also only has 2 extra base hits (1 double, 1 homer).

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Hiromitsu Ochiai doesn't seem to be too worried about his team right now.  He told reporters yesterday that at one point, he figured it wouldn't be a stretch if the team lost its first 9 games in a row.

Said Ochiai, "This is good medicine.  I was thinking 9 consecutive losses was possible.  That was my worst case scenario.  But [after 9 games] we're 2-6-1 so I see that as being pretty good."

Incidentally, the Dragons offense has not scored a run in 21 straight innings.  That goes back to the 6th inning of Tuesday's game against the Yakult Swallows.

Hanshin Tigers

Takahiro Arai recorded his 6th multi-hit game of the year last night (five 2-hit games and one 3-hit game).  He's now 14-for-36 with a .908 OPS.

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TV Ratings for last night's game between the Tigers and Yomiuri Giants for the Kansai region were 19.4% (9.8% in Kanto).  The absolute high was 28.0%.

Yomiuri Giants

Shinnosuke Abe played some catch and did some running at Giants Stadium today.  He's hoping to make it back to the active roster in time for the start of the Inter-league games in mid-May.

Michihiro Ogasawara agreed to a 2-year extension earlier today.  The extension will pay Ogasawara 430M yen a year, up 50M yen from this past season.  This makes Ogasawara the highest paid position player for the 2011 season.

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Shun Tono is apparently shooting for 15 wins next season.  And 3 wins in the postseason.

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Tetsuya Utsumi doesn't plan on signing anything with the Giants until he's fully satisfied with what they're offering him.

Said Utsumi, "I have a family [to think about].  We just had our second kid.  I need to do this until I'm satisfied."

But this also doesn't mean that Utsumi is willing to prolong negotiations into next year as he also hopes to get things done as quickly as possible.

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The media learned that 25-year-old Yukinori Momiyama will be filing marriage papers with a 24-year-old woman named Tae Uchiyama some time in late December and hold a ceremony in January.  Momiyama initially held back his proposal since he wasn't sure if he could provide for a family properly with his Ikusei contract.  But Uchiyama apparently re-assured Momiyama that she didn't mind working, as long as she could look forward to being a housewife when he moved up to the 70-man roster.

Momiyama becomes the first Giants' Ikusei player to get married.

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Nippon TV announced that TV ratings for their coverage of Yomiuri Giants' games this season (9 in all) averaged about 8.2%.  That's a drop of 1.6% from last season.  While the drop obviously isn't a good thing, Nippon TV doesn't plan on dropping their coverage and will continue focus most of their broadcasts on their BS channel next season.  Seems as content for BS channels, the broadcasts are actually pretty good.