Western League (Japanese baseball) Western League (Japanese baseball) The is one of the two minor leagues ("ni-gun") of Japanese professional baseball. The league is owned and managed by the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Teams in the Western League generally play an 80-game schedule every year. The league was created in 1952 as the Kansai Farm League, and was initially completely separate from the workings of the Nippon Professional Baseball. It featured the minor league teams of the six professional teams that had their homefields in the western region of Japan, as well one independent team not affiliated with an NPB franchise.
Toru Yoshida Toru Yoshida Yoshida was born in Shiwa, Iwate on May 17, 1965. After graduating from high school, he joined Furukawa Electric in 1984. He played many matches as side back from 1986 and the club won the champions 1986 JSL Cup and 1986 Asian Club Championship. This is first Asian champions as Japanese club. In 1995, he moved to Japan Football League club Brummell Sendai. He retired end of 1997 season. After retirement, Yoshida became a coach for Sony Sendai in 1998. In September 2001, he became a manager as Kazuaki Nagasawa successor. He managed the club until 2003. In