Baseball Federation of Japan

The Baseball Federation of Japan (BFJ) is the governing body of amateur baseball in Japan. They organize Japanese amateur baseball throughout Japan and overseas. The Federation was created by the merger of the Japan Amateur Baseball Association (JABA) and the Japan Student Baseball Association (JSBA) on June 20, 1990. In 2003, there were 160,000 people playing baseball in around 5,000 teams across Japan. As of 2015, the BFJ represents six international teams: senior, women, university, high school/18U, 15U, and a 12U team.

Japan is one of the few countries that fields both an amateur and professional version of its national baseball team. The amateur team participates in most competitions, while the professional players are typically reserved for major events like the Olympics and the World Baseball Classic. Japan has claimed victory in three of the first five World Baseball Classics, one of the first two Premier 12 tournaments, and earned a gold medal at the 2020 Olympics. Additionally, Japan triumphed in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, defeating the United States national baseball team.

The Industrial League (JAPA) and Student Baseball (High School and College) had been run separately for a long time from before World War II. In 1954, they formed the Japan Amateur Baseball Federation to organize and represent a Japanese team in the first Asian Baseball Championship in the Philippines. In 1966, after participating in six Asian Baseball Championships, the Japan Amateur Baseball Federation was disbanded and reorganized into the Japan Amateur Baseball International Committee in 1967.

Beginning in 1984, baseball was being considered as an Olympic sport. After being featured as a demonstration sport at the Los Angeles (1984) and Seoul (1988) Summer Olympics, baseball became a regular Olympic sport beginning with the 1992 Games in Barcelona. These developments prompted the unification of the JAPA and JSBA into the Baseball Federation of Japan (BFJ) on June 20, 1990. The BFJ joined the Japanese Olympic Committee, International Baseball Federation, and Baseball Federation of Asia.