Each prefecture has its elimination tournament to choose its representatives, then everyone has a team to root for at the national level. When their representative loses, their loyalty naturally switches to the nearest prefecture still in the running. This is particularly true of the bi-annual high school baseball tournament, on TV all day long for over two weeks and followed in great detail with passionate interest from Hokkaido to Okinawa. Tournament stars often become pros, with announcers forever reminiscing about their high school heroics. The tournament enjoys a long tradition from pre-War times.
Ritualism is conspicuous in Japanese baseball.
Even at the sandlot level, each game is preceded by the 2 teams lining up, facing each other solemnly. In a very secularized society, there seems to be something faintly religious in these sporting rituals. In Kagawa one may watch the elimination tournament in the Spring and Fall at the prefectural stadium below Goshiki-dai Plateau on the Seto Inland Sea coast, particularly if one can join the cheering section of a certain high school. During Spring training one or more pro baseball games may be played at that stadium. Played with the nankyu ball, this sport is known as socho yakyu or early morning baseball, because it is usually played before work on weekdays, occasionally at night or on Sunday afternoons like softball.