Imperial Baseball Game Day

What Is Imperial Baseball Game Day?

Every June 25th is "Imperial Baseball Game Day" (天覧試合の日, Tenran Shiai no Hi) in Japan. On June 25, 1959, Emperor Shōwa (昭和天皇, Hirohito) attended a professional baseball game at Kōrakuen Stadium in Tokyo — the first time a Japanese Emperor had watched a professional baseball game. The game — between the Yomiuri Giants and the Osaka Tigers (today's Hanshin Tigers) — has entered baseball legend for its dramatic conclusion: Giants slugger Nagashima Shigeo (長嶋茂雄) hit a sayōnara (walk-off) home run in the bottom of the ninth inning in front of the Emperor.

Nagashima's Imperial Home Run

The June 25, 1959 game was tied 4–4 going into the bottom of the ninth when Yomiuri Giants star Nagashima Shigeo led off the inning and hit a walk-off home run down the left-field line, giving the Giants a 5–4 win. The home run came at 9:12 p.m. — just three minutes before 9:15 p.m., the time by which the Emperor and Empress were scheduled to leave. The moment — a dramatic, decisive hit in front of the Emperor watching his first professional baseball game — became one of Japanese baseball's most celebrated stories, known as the "Tenran Home Run." Earlier in the game, in the bottom of the seventh, Sadaharu Oh had also hit a game-tying home run.

Nagashima Shigeo: Mr. Giants

Nagashima Shigeo (長嶋茂雄, 1936–2025) is one of the most beloved figures in Japanese baseball history — nicknamed "Mr. Giants" and "Mr. Pro Baseball" for his extraordinary combination of athletic excellence, charismatic personality, and his identification with the Yomiuri Giants across decades as player and manager. His combination of hitting skill, fielding excellence, and theatrical flair for the big moment made him baseball's equivalent of a kabuki star — always performing at his best when the stakes were highest.

Baseball and the Emperor

The Emperor's attendance at a baseball game in 1959 was symbolically significant — lending imperial recognition to the sport that had become Japan's most popular athletic pursuit in the postwar period. Emperor Shōwa had earlier watched a Waseda–Keio university baseball game in 1929, but this was his first professional game. Baseball (野球, yakyū) had been introduced to Japan in the Meiji era and embraced as a sport that combined Western modernity with Japanese values of discipline, team spirit, and technical excellence.

Fun Facts

• Nagashima's retirement: When Nagashima retired as a player in 1974, his farewell words at Kōrakuen Stadium — "Our Giants are eternally immortal" (我が巨人軍は永久に不滅です) — became one of the most famous lines in Japanese sports history.
• ON combination: The Yomiuri Giants' legendary "ON combination" — Sadaharu Oh (王貞治) and Nagashima, who typically batted third and fourth — defined Japanese baseball in the 1960s and early 1970s. The 1959 imperial game is also remembered as a game in which both of them homered.
• Special TV broadcast: Nippon TV began its broadcast of the game at 7 p.m., an hour earlier than its usual start for night games.