Professional baseball in Japan the first American to play professional baseball in Japan when he joined the Dai Nippon Tokyo Yakyu Kurabu (Tokyo Giants) in December 1934, touring with them in 1935. Jimmy Bonna, Kiyomi "Slim" Hirakawa, Fumito "Jimmy" Horio, Kazuyoshi "George" Matsuura, Andrew "Bucky" Harris McGalliard (Japan's "Bucky Harris"), Herbert "Buster" North, Yoshio "Sam" Takahashi, and Tadashi "Bozo" Wakabayashi became the first Americans to play in Japan's professional baseball league in 1936. The American writer Robert Whiting wrote in his 1977 book "The Chrysanthemum and the Bat" that, While others have objected to characterizing the sport in these terms, many Japanese players and
Akira Yoshida Akira Yoshida Educated at the Keiko Gakuen Junior High School, he served as captain of his college's rugby team during his high school days, finishing second at the 69th All-Japan High School Rugby Football Championship. Then, Yoshida attended Kyoto Sangyo University regularly since the first year. He was also the captain at the university's rugby team in 1993. In 1994, he joined Kobe Steel, as regular centre since his first year in the club, contributing to achieve the seventh consecutive victories in the All-Japan Rugby Company Championship and in the Japanese Championship for Kobe Steel. Yoshida also contributed to the