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Baseball is first introduced in Japan by Horace Wilson, an American English teacher at the Kaisei Academy in Tokyo. American teachers and missionaries then began to popularize the game throughout Japanese schools in the 1870s and 1880s

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The popularity of Baseball in Japan grew quickly, adapting the game to fit their culture and eventually leading to the establishment of Japan’s first organized baseball team, the Shimbashi Athletic Club, in 1878

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The first recorded international baseball game in Japan. Ichiban Chugaku (now Tokyo University) defeated an American team 29 to 4.

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The first National high school championship tournament was played involving 10 teams and was played in a ballpark in the Osaka suburb of Toyonaka that seated less than 15,000. The tournament quickly became extremely popular. Now, it is the biggest sporting event of the year in Japan, held each August at the Koshien Stadium. Watched by crowds of up to 50,000 per game, with live nationwide telecasts reaching millions more. It is said to be the closest thing Japan has to a "national festival".

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The 1934 Major League All-Star tour of Japan changed Japanese baseball forever.  The Japanese played one of the strongest teams in the history of baseball.  Led by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, they played a total of 17 games, with the US going undefeated. With the presence of such an iconic team, this tour greatly influenced an increase in popularity of baseball in Japan.  This tour also sparked the Japanese to improve their amateur baseball leagues.

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The Japanese Professional League is formed.

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After the end of World War II, American troops still occupied Japan. General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, was put in charge with overseeing the "postwar occupation and rebuilding efforts."

MacArthur, who had played baseball as a cadet at West Point, saw the importance that baseball had on the cultures of both countries. In an effort to rebuild relations, he called former major league player Lefty O'Doul, who had become the manager of the minor league San Francisco Seals. The Seals would become the first American baseball team to play in Japan since Ruth’s tour. They played a 10-game tour where hundreds of thousands of fans came including Emperor Hirohito, thanking O’Doul and the Seals.

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The Japanese professional League turns into The Nippon Professional Baseball League consisting of the Pacific and Central leagues. This is influenced by the MLB's two league system. Each league has six teams each.

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Masanori Murakami makes the roster of the San Francisco Giants. Becomes the first Japanese-born player to reach the Major Leagues.

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The Tokyo Dome, modeled after the Metrodome in Minnesota, opens.

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"Ichiro Suzuki signs with the Seattle Mariners and leads the league in batting as he captures the AL ROY and MVP awards."

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In the MLB, most often you will always find fans taunting the players and fans from opposing teams. However, this part of American baseball culture won't be found in Japanese professional baseball games. The atmosphere at the games is "unmatched especially due to the crazy mascots, rally balloons, and Yuriko (beer girls) who run up and down delivering beer from kegs they carry on their backs." This combined with the competitive athleticism is why Baseball is the utmost popular sport in Japan today.