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Baseball is the most popular sport in Japan. Its popularity has a lot to do with the American occupation.

Very special thanks to William Neal Dahlberg, who wrote an excellent and essential Masters thesis on this very topic and has allowed us to share it publicly with you all (it’s normally behind an academic paywall). If you want to learn more about democratization through sport in postwar Japan, here is the link!
→ drive.google.com/file/d/1aKPmb_FCYv2Y_V4yj7yjVSd4-…
The rest of our sources and citations can be found below.—
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Sources [Footnotes are in video captions, Wikipedia has been cited only for trivial information]
A = Wikipedia, Koshien Stadium. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koshien_Stadium
B = Wikipedia, Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Benson_Hall_of_Fame_Stad…
C = Wikipedia, Es Con Field Hokkaido. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Es_Con_Field_Hokkaido
D = Wikipedia, List of largest sports contracts. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_sports_contr…
E = Wikipedia, World Baseball Classic / Results. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Baseball_Classic#Resul…
F = Sapporo City, Kitagas Arena Sapporo. www.city.sapporo.jp.e.ain.hp.transer.com/sports/si…
G = Wikipedia, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Commander_for_the_Al…
H = William Neal Dahlberg, Democratization, Re-education, and Japanese Physical Culture: The Use of Sport by the American Occupiers of Japan, 1945-1952. drive.google.com/file/d/1aKPmb_FCYv2Y_V4yj7yjVSd4-…
I = Gerald R. Gems, The Athletic Crusade: Sport and American Cultural Imperialism. www.google.co.nz/books/edition/The_Athletic_Crusad…

Citations
1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. E
6. F
7. H, p.31
8. H, p.90
9. H, p.70
10. H, p.79
11. H, p.73-74
12. I, p.31
13. H, p.10-11
14. H, p.12
15. G