ESPN has recently been running features on Japanese baseball. In viewing these features, I’ve noticed that Japanese pro baseball teams commonly have the team name written in Roman characters in lieu of kanji/katakana. For instance, the Orix Blue Wave has the words “Blue Wave” written on the jerseys, as opposed to Japanese characters meaning “Blue Wave”. Same with the Yomiuri Giants and Seibu Lions.
Japanese teams seem to commonly have Roman letters on their caps, too. Why no Japanese characters on Japanese pro baseball uniforms? I understand that nearly all educated Japanese folks are quite familiar with Roman text, but still – these are JAPANESE teams on JAPANESE soil playing for JAPANESE fans.
The Japanese all learn in school how to pronounce words written in Roman letters (they call it “Romaji”). Japanese culture (especially advertising) heavily borrows English words, like “Sporty”, “Gentle”, and “Bright”, in much the same way as American cosmetics advertisers seem compelled to put French words on their products.
Unlike the Chinese, the Japanese do have a couple of phonetic alphabets, so they’re used to pronouncing words by sounding them out. They can therefore pronounce English words even if they don’t know what they mean, just like a non-Spanish speaker can sound out Spanish words even if he doesn’t know a lick of Spanish.
I should add that it is Japanese pop culture that borrows English so heavily. It’s kind of natural that when playing an American game, they would not hesitate to use Roman letters on their uniforms. If you ever visit Tokyo, check out the number of T-shirts with stupid/nonsensical English text on them. Some examples off the top of my head: “Boston Red Fox”, “Pat my Pussy”, and one from my personal collection, a Dunlop logo t-shirt that blathers “Person’s Personality in Daily Life: Motorsport”. I’d guess that not one in ten Japanese knows what that means, but they can certainly pronounce it. People have written books about it. The little buggers just can’t get enough of English - it has a very hip connotation.
[SWAG] (before somebody posts that Engrish link - aw, heck, might as well get it over with: http://www.engrish.com )
Like so many other things in baseball, simple tradition, like managers wearing uniforms. Baseball was brought to Japan by Americans, who presumably brought American uniforms with them. Once the Japanese started using them, in combination with the Americophilia already mentioned, a tradition was formed.
The same tradition was carried to Taiwan when the Japanese occupied it, btw. Gotta love team names like Brother Elephants, Taichung Robomen, and Thunder God Clan.
[/SWAG]
This view would seem to be affirmed here: US-Japan Games 1905
The Waseda University team was using Romanji on its jerseys as far back as 1905. It seems they did things the American way because baseball is an American sport.
All of the baseball terminology they use are also US words, pronounced phonetically: Faru Boru = foul ball, etc. It’s pretty interesting listening to Japanese audio for a baseball game - I was watching a Mariner’s game, and they switched over to the Japanese broadcast team while Ichiro was batting. I’ll bet it’s a trip going to a game over there.
CityGent, my brother just got back from an extended visit in Tokyo, and he got me a T-Shirt that says “Imposing Bear is Your Only Friend.” God, I love that shirt. I imagine this bear drinking all my beer and eating all my food. But what can I do? He’s my only friend…