Hanshin Tigers Day

What Is Hanshin Tigers Day?

Every November 2nd is "Hanshin Tigers Day" (阪神タイガース記念日, Hanshin Taigāsu Kinenbi) in Japan. It commemorates November 2, 1985, when the Hanshin Tigers (阪神タイガース) defeated the Seibu Lions in the Japan Series to become Japan's champions for the first time in 38 years — and for the first time since Japanese baseball split into two leagues. The club itself was founded on December 10, 1935 and took the name "Osaka Tigers" (大阪タイガース) in January 1936, making it one of Japan's oldest professional baseball clubs and the team that embodies the passionate, occasionally tragic, deeply loyal baseball culture of Osaka and the Kansai region. It adopted its current name, Hanshin Tigers, in 1961.

The Hanshin Tigers: Kansai's Beloved Team

The Hanshin Tigers are Japan's most emotionally intense baseball fandom story. Based at the legendary Kōshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, the Tigers represent Osaka and Kansai with a fervor that often exceeds the intensity of any other team's supporters in Japanese baseball. The Tigers have won the Japan Series only twice (1985 and 2023) in their long history — and their recurring near-misses and heartbreaks have deepened rather than diminished the loyalty of their supporters, who wear their suffering as a badge of honor.

The Curse of the Colonel

One of Japanese baseball's most colorful folklore items is the "Curse of the Colonel" (カーネル・サンダースの呪い, Kāneru Sandāsu no Noroi) — the supposed curse that befell the Hanshin Tigers after fans, celebrating the 1985 Japan Series victory, threw a Colonel Sanders statue into the Dōtonbori River in Osaka. The statue was recovered from the riverbed in 2009, and the Tigers' 2023 Japan Series victory was popularly attributed to the curse finally being lifted. The story perfectly captures the mixture of passion, superstition, and humor that characterizes Tigers fandom.

Baseball in Osaka Culture

The Tigers' rivalry with the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants — "Japan's team" vs. "Osaka's team" — maps onto deeper cultural tensions between Tokyo and Osaka, between central power and regional pride, between the polished and the rough-hewn. Supporting the Tigers is an expression of Osaka identity, and the passion of the Tigers' fan base at Kōshien Stadium — with its coordinated chants, the seventh-inning release of balloons, and continuous vocal support — is one of Japanese baseball's most spectacular spectacles.

Fun Facts

• Dōtonbori celebrations: When the Hanshin Tigers win important victories, Osaka fans traditionally gather at Dōtonbori (道頓堀) and jump into the river — a tradition that health authorities discourage but that continues as a ritual expression of Kansai celebratory abandon.
• 2023 championship: The Hanshin Tigers' 2023 Japan Series victory — their first in 38 years — generated celebrations across Kansai that rivaled the 1985 championship, with enormous crowds at Kōshien and in Osaka's entertainment districts.