The 2004 NPB Strike and Realignment

Kintetsu Buffaloes fans in 2004, the season of the merger crisis and strike
Photo: Gomurafuji (Japanese Wikipedia) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

History › The 2004 NPB Strike and Realignment

In 2004, Japanese baseball came close to a big change. Two teams planned to merge. Some owners wanted to go further. They talked about cutting the game down to one league of ten teams.

The players said no. Fans backed them. In September 2004, the players went on strike for two days. It was the first strike in the history of Japanese pro baseball.

In the end, the merger went ahead. But a new team was let in. Japan kept twelve teams and two leagues. A new club, the Rakuten Eagles, was born in Sendai.

This page tells the whole story. We start with why teams were losing money. Then we go through the merger plan, the fight over one league, the strike, and the race for the new team. We end with what changed after.

Here’s the thing. In 2004, the players and fans won a fight most people thought they would lose.

New to how the leagues work? Read how NPB works first. For the whole timeline, see our history hub.

Quick Facts

  • The merger: The Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave. Both were Pacific League teams.
  • When it came out: June 13, 2004.
  • The players’ union leader: Atsuya Furuta, a catcher for the Yakult Swallows.
  • The strike: Saturday and Sunday, September 18 and 19, 2004.
  • Games lost: Twelve.
  • The deal: Reached on September 23, 2004.
  • The new team: The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, picked on November 2, 2004.
  • The merged team: The Orix Buffaloes, first season 2005.
  • What stayed: Twelve teams and two leagues.

Why Teams Were Losing Money

To understand 2004, you need to know how teams in Japan made money.

Most teams in Japan are owned by big companies. A team is a kind of ad for its owner. For years, owners did not care much if the team lost money. The name in the paper every day was worth it.

But in the 1990s, Japan’s economy slowed down. It stayed slow for years. Companies began to look hard at costs. A team that lost money every year started to look like a problem.

There was another issue. Teams did not share money the way MLB teams do. The Yomiuri Giants were by far the most popular team. Their games were on TV across the country. Teams in the Central League made good money when the Giants came to town.

Pacific League teams did not play the Giants in the regular season. So they missed out on that money.

Player pay was also going up. And some stars, like Ichiro Suzuki, had left for MLB. You can read more in our guide to NPB players who went to MLB.

The Kintetsu Buffaloes in Trouble

The Kintetsu Buffaloes played in Osaka. They were owned by Kintetsu, a big railway company.

By 2004, the team was losing a lot of money each year. Fewer fans came. Pay was going up. And the team had to pay a big fee to play in the Osaka Dome.

In January 2004, Kintetsu tried to sell the right to put another name on the team. The head of the league said no. The plan was dropped.

So Kintetsu looked for another way out.

The Orix BlueWave in Trouble Too

The Orix BlueWave played in Kobe. They had been a strong team in the 1990s. Ichiro was their star. They won the Japan Series in 1996.

But Ichiro left for MLB after the 2000 season. Crowds got smaller. The team finished last in 2002 and 2003.

Orix needed help too.

The Merger Plan Comes Out

On June 13, 2004, a big business paper, the Nikkei, broke the news. Kintetsu and Orix were talking about a merger.

The plan was simple. The two teams would become one. Kintetsu would hand its team over to Orix.

Things moved fast.

  • June 17: The Pacific League board backed the plan.
  • June 21: A league panel said it was fine with the plan, but did not give final approval.
  • July 1: The two teams signed a basic deal.

For Kintetsu fans, it was a shock. Their team had been around since 1950. Now it would be gone. You can read the full story of both clubs on our Orix Buffaloes history page.

Livedoor Steps In

At the end of June, a new player came on the scene. It was Livedoor, a young internet company. Its boss was Takafumi Horie. He was in his early thirties and very well known.

Horie said he wanted to buy the Buffaloes. He would keep them as their own team. That way, there would still be twelve teams.

Kintetsu said no. It would not even meet with him. Its president said there was not even a one percent chance.

Many fans liked Horie. He looked like the only one trying to save the team. Horie said that if he could not buy a team, he would try to start one.

The Talk of One League

Then things got bigger.

On July 7, 2004, the owners met. They gave basic backing to the merger. Then the Seibu Lions owner, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, said something that shocked the room. He said another merger was in the works in the Pacific League.

If two more teams merged, the Pacific League would have just four teams. That is too few for a league.

So some owners began to talk about one league. It would have ten teams. The Central and Pacific Leagues would be gone.

The Giants owner, Tsuneo Watanabe, liked the idea. He was one of the most powerful men in Japanese baseball.

Later, Tsutsumi said the second merger he meant was between Lotte and the Daiei Hawks. It never happened.

“Just Players”

On July 8, 2004, a reporter asked Watanabe about the players. Their leader, Atsuya Furuta, had said he wanted to meet with the owners.

Watanabe snapped back. He said, in part, “tada ka senshu ga.” That means something like “they are just players.”

Those words made a lot of people angry. Fans and the press turned on Watanabe. The words became a symbol of how the owners saw the players.

Here’s the thing. That one line may have done more to help the players than anything they said themselves.

The Players Fight Back

The players had a union. It was called the Japan Pro Baseball Players Association. Its president was Atsuya Furuta. He was the star catcher of the Yakult Swallows. You can read more about him on our Yakult Swallows history page.

On July 10, 2004, the union held a special meeting in Nagoya. It was the day before the All-Star Game there. The players voted to oppose the merger.

They feared fewer teams would mean fewer jobs. Some said up to 100 players and staff could lose work. They also feared a weaker game for fans.

Then the players started to collect names on a petition.

  • July 16: Kintetsu players began.
  • July 23: Chunichi players joined. They were the first Central League team to join.
  • July 29: Even the Giants players joined.
  • August 5: Hiroshima players joined. Now all twelve teams were in.

By September, about a million fans or more had signed.

Japan’s biggest labor group also came out to help the players.

The Central League Pushes Back

Not all owners wanted one league.

Senichi Hoshino was a former manager of the Hanshin Tigers. He had led them to the pennant in 2003. He spoke out. He said the owners were not listening to players or fans.

Soon the Tigers came out for keeping two leagues. On July 16, the Tigers’ president got the Hiroshima and Chunichi teams to agree. Yakult and Yokohama joined in.

The Tigers had an idea. What if teams from the two leagues played each other in the regular season? That is called interleague play. It would help Pacific League teams play the Giants. And it would keep the two leagues alive.

On July 26, the leagues met. The Central League said it wanted two leagues. The Pacific League said it would go to one league if it fell to four teams. They did not agree.

You can read more on our Hanshin Tigers history page.

Watanabe Steps Down

In August, a new problem hit the Giants. It came out that the team had paid money to a college pitcher, Yasuhiro Ichiba, to win him over. That was against the rules.

On August 13, 2004, Watanabe stepped down as Giants owner.

The loudest voice for one league was gone.

The Courts

The players asked the courts for help.

On August 27, the union asked a Tokyo court to stop the merger. On September 3, the court said no. The players asked a higher court. It also said no.

But the higher court said one important thing. It said the union had the right to bargain with the league. That gave the players a seat at the table.

The Merger Is Approved

On September 6, a league panel approved the merger. On September 8, the owners gave it final approval.

The owners did agree to keep two leagues for now. They said they would think about interleague play. And they said they would look at the rules for new teams.

But the owners would not wait on the merger. Kintetsu was losing too much money.

The Players Set Terms

Before the vote, the union set out three demands.

  1. Put the merger on hold for one year.
  2. Promise no more mergers.
  3. Make it cheaper for a new team to join.

If these were not met, the players said they would not play on weekends.

On September 9 and 10, the two sides talked. They reached a short-term deal. The owners promised no more mergers. The players played that weekend.

Talks went on. On September 16 and 17, they met again. The league said a new team could not join until 2006. The players wanted a new team in 2005. They also still wanted the one-year hold.

On Friday, September 17, the talks went past the deadline. No deal.

The Strike

On Saturday, September 18, 2004, the players did not play. They did not play on Sunday, September 19, either.

It was the first strike in the history of Japanese pro baseball.

Twelve games were lost. Six were on Saturday and six on Sunday.

But the players did not just stay home. They went to the parks anyway. They signed autographs. They held clinics for kids. They met fans.

That was smart. The strike did not look like players turning their backs on fans. It looked like players standing with them.

Fans did not turn on the players. Polls showed most fans were on the players’ side.

The strike cost money. One study put the loss at about 1.89 billion yen. Players lost pay too.

The Deal

The next weekend, more games were at risk. Both sides wanted a deal.

On September 23, 2004, they reached one.

The players gave up on the one-year hold. The merger would go ahead.

In return, the league made it easier for new teams to join. And it agreed that a new team could start play in 2005.

The weekend strike was called off. The season went on.

Here’s the thing. The players lost the merger fight. But they won the bigger one. Japan would keep twelve teams.

Two Companies Want the New Team

Two internet companies stepped up.

The first was Livedoor, Horie’s company. It wanted a team in Sendai. It planned to call it the Sendai Livedoor Phoenix. Tom O’Malley, a former MLB and NPB player, would be the manager.

The second was Rakuten, an online shopping company. Its boss was Hiroshi Mikitani. Rakuten also wanted a team in Sendai. It planned to call it the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Marty Kuehnert would be general manager. Yasushi Tao would be the first manager.

Both would play at Miyagi Stadium in Sendai. Sendai had no pro team at the time.

The Choice

In October, a panel heard from both companies. They looked at money, plans for the park, and how long each company would stay.

Fans in the Tohoku region liked Livedoor more at first. In one poll, 40 percent backed Livedoor and only 7 percent backed Rakuten.

But Rakuten had more support in the business world. Mikitani already ran a pro soccer team, Vissel Kobe. The league saw Rakuten as the safer pick.

On November 2, 2004, the owners chose Rakuten.

It was the first truly new team to join since 1954. The last one had been the Takahashi Unions. You can read about them on our page about the 1950 split.

Two years later, in 2006, Horie was arrested over fraud at Livedoor. Many people then said the league had made the right choice.

Building Two Rosters

Now there were two new teams to fill. The merged Orix club and the new Rakuten club both needed players.

On November 8, 2004, they held a special draft. The players from Kintetsu and Orix were split between the two teams.

  • Orix got to protect 25 players first.
  • Rakuten then picked 20 from the rest.
  • Then the two teams took turns picking 20 more.
  • Anyone left over went to Orix.

Rakuten ended up with 40 players.

One player did not want to go to the merged team. That was Hisashi Iwakuma, Kintetsu’s ace. He had led the Pacific League in wins in 2004. See the 2004 title holders. He was upset about the merger. After long talks, Orix traded him to Rakuten.

The Daiei Hawks Change Hands

There was one more big change that year.

The Fukuoka Daiei Hawks were owned by Daiei, a store chain in deep trouble. They needed a new owner too.

On November 30, 2004, SoftBank, a tech company, agreed to buy the team. The owners approved the sale on December 24. It took effect on January 28, 2005.

The team became the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. See our SoftBank Hawks history page.

So in one year, three Pacific League clubs got new owners or new names. Two of the new owners were tech and internet companies.

The End of the Kintetsu Buffaloes

The merger took effect on December 1, 2004.

The Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes were gone after 55 years. The new team was called the Orix Buffaloes. It kept the Buffaloes name from Kintetsu.

At first, the new team used both home parks, the Osaka Dome and the park in Kobe.

It was the first merger of two teams since the 1950s.

What Changed After 2004

The 2004 crisis changed Japanese baseball in many ways.

Interleague play. In 2005, teams from the two leagues began to play each other in the regular season. Pacific League teams finally got to host the Giants.

A new team in a new place. The Eagles brought pro baseball to Sendai and the Tohoku region. Read their story on our Rakuten Eagles history page.

New kinds of owners. Internet and tech companies came into the game. That brought new money and new ideas.

A stronger players’ union. The players showed they could stand up to the owners and win.

The Pacific League grew. Teams worked harder to win local fans. In the years after, Pacific League crowds grew.

How Things Turned Out

The Eagles had a very hard first year in 2005. They lost 97 games. But in 2013, they won the Japan Series over the Giants.

The Orix Buffaloes took longer. They won the Japan Series in 2022, beating the Yakult Swallows.

As of the 2025 season, Japan still had twelve teams and two leagues.

Timeline

  • January 2004: Kintetsu tries to sell naming rights. The league says no.
  • June 13, 2004: The merger plan comes out.
  • June 30, 2004: Livedoor confirms it wants to buy the Buffaloes.
  • July 7, 2004: Talk of a second merger and one league.
  • July 8, 2004: Watanabe’s “just players” remark.
  • July 10, 2004: The players vote to oppose the merger.
  • August 5, 2004: Players from all twelve teams join the petition.
  • August 13, 2004: Watanabe steps down as Giants owner.
  • August 27, 2004: The union goes to court.
  • September 3, 2004: The court turns the union down.
  • September 8, 2004: The owners approve the merger.
  • September 18 and 19, 2004: The strike.
  • September 23, 2004: The deal. A new team can join in 2005.
  • November 2, 2004: Rakuten is chosen.
  • November 8, 2004: The special draft.
  • November 30, 2004: SoftBank agrees to buy the Daiei Hawks.
  • December 1, 2004: The merger takes effect.
  • 2005: Interleague play begins. The Eagles and the merged Buffaloes play their first season.
  • 2013: The Eagles win the Japan Series.
  • 2022: The Orix Buffaloes win the Japan Series.

Key Terms

  • Merger: When two teams join into one.
  • Realignment: A change in how teams and leagues are set up.
  • Strike: When workers stop work to push for a deal.
  • Players’ union: A group that speaks for all the players.
  • Interleague play: Regular season games between teams from different leagues.
  • Distribution draft: A special draft to split players between teams.
  • Petition: A list of names of people who back a cause.

For many more words, see our Japanese baseball glossary.

Common Questions

Was the 2004 strike the first in Japanese baseball? Yes. It was the first strike in the history of Japanese pro baseball.

How long did the strike last? Two days, September 18 and 19, 2004.

Why did the players strike? They opposed the merger of Kintetsu and Orix. They feared more mergers and a single league with fewer teams.

Did the merger happen? Yes. The merged team became the Orix Buffaloes in 2005.

Why was Rakuten chosen over Livedoor? The owners saw Rakuten as the more stable company. Rakuten also had sports experience.

Who was Atsuya Furuta? A star catcher for the Yakult Swallows. He led the players’ union in 2004.

Did Japan end up with one league? No. As of the 2025 season, Japan still had two leagues of six teams each.

The Bottom Line

In 2004, the owners had a plan to shrink the game. The players stood up. Fans stood with them. For two days, there was no baseball.

The players did not stop the merger. But they kept twelve teams and two leagues. And they helped bring a new team to a part of Japan that had never had one.

There is a lesson in that. When the people who love a game speak up together, they can change where it goes.

Before this, read about the 1950 split and the founding of Japanese pro baseball. For all twelve clubs, see our teams page. For stat leaders, see the title holders hub.

Sources