Japan's professional baseball league, NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball), is near and dear to my heart. I first visited in 2016 and was captivated by the crowd and atmosphere at a game in Hiroshima between the Carp and the Tigers. My wife and I sat in the visitor's "performance" section with the Tigers' supporters at Mazda Stadium, and they could not have been friendlier (or rowdier!). Since then I've been back to see games in 2018 at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo, in 2019 at the Fukuoka PayPay Dome and Koshien Field, and in 2023 at the Tokyo Dome. It's always been a delight to catch one of these games and marvel at the atmosphere.
It was really important to me to get the NPB schedule data right; some games take place at alternate venues across the country (for example in Akita, Okinawa, and Kumamoto), and I wanted to represent those correctly on the map. Enter Michael Westbay, the brains behind JapanBallTickets.com; he was kind enough to share his spreadsheet of ticketing data, which contains the correct locations for all games during the season. After adapting his data, I'm happy to present correct alternate venue locations for NPB games in 2024:
This was something I really wanted to get right on the site, and it's nice to be able to do so. As I write this, my primary data source has correct date/time info for games through May 29; after that, a few games have had their start times changed, but it isn't yet reflected in the data.
As always, please verify start times and home venues with the home team before making travel plans and buying tickets.
Have a great season and play ball!
