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Official Name: 全国高等学校野球選手権大会 (Zenkoku Kōtō Gakkō Yakyū Senshuken Taikai) = National High School Baseball Championship

Also Known As: Natsu no Koshien, Natsu no Kōkō Yakyu, Natsu no Senshuken

Sponsored by: Asahi Newspaper and the Japan High School Baseball Federation

Number of Participating Teams: 49

Played at: Toyonaka Stadium (1914-15), Naruo Stadium (1916-1923), Hanshin Koshien Stadium (1924-present)

Years Not Played: 1918 (Rice Riots), 1941-45 (World War II), 2020 (COVID-19)

Most Successful Prefecture: Osaka (14 championships)

Most Recent Winner: Kyoto – Kyoto Kokusai HS (2024)

Prefecture Without Semi-Final Appearance: Toyama

Prefectures Without Finals Appearance: Tottori, Fukui, Iwate, Shimane, Nagasaki, Yamanashi, Yamagata

Prefectures Without Championships: Kumamoto, Aomori, Okayama, Kagoshima, Akita, Miyazaki, Ishikawa, Niigata, Shiga, Fukushima

History

With the opening of the brand new Hanshin Koshien Stadium (1924), the tournament moved from Naruo Stadium and has been played there almost entirely since. (Some games in 1958 and 1963 were played at Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium, across town.) Originally, the winners of the spring tournament (which started in 1924) were rewarded with a trip to America (or Hawaii at times) during the summer break, which automatically meant not participating in the summer tournament.

The tournament has grown in size and stature since its inaugural year. From the 40th tournament (1958) and every fifth thereafter, every prefecture was represented. Twenty years later, in 1978, the tournament adopted that format every year. At the time, only 25 schools in Tottori Prefecture were vying for entry into the tournament, making their local tournament significantly less challenging than those in more populous parts of Japan. Because Tokyo and Hokkaido each had over 256 schools entering the prefectural tournaments, they were both awarded two spots in the national tournament. Hokkaido has one representative from the north and another from the south, while Tokyo divides between east and west. As a result, the total number of teams in the tournament is usually 49.

In special years (80th, 90th, and 100th tournaments), extra teams have been added from other populated prefectures. This year (2018), in addition to Tokyo and Hokkaido, the following prefectures will enter two teams into the tournament: Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Aichi, Osaka, Hyogo, and Fukuoka.

How It Works

Each prefecture has its own elimination tournament, usually in July, and the winner advances to this national tournament. Lots are drawn to determine matchups (with 49 schools, some schools automatically get a bye into the second round), and teams face off until only one is left standing.

The tournament itself starts with an Opening Ceremony, during which every team marches in to the stadium from the outfield. The previous year’s winning team leads the way (though if that team is not in that year’s tournament, only the captain from that team leads), and then all the teams march in – in odd years, they enter from north to south, while in even years, they enter from south to north. All the players and coaches stand on the field while speeches take place. The “keynote” speech is done by a player representative, who vows that everyone will play boldly, strongly, and with good sportsmanship.

Every match starts with a siren sounding as the first pitch is thrown, and every game ends with the teams lining up facing each other and bowing. The winners sing their school song, while the losers gather precious Koshien field dirt into their cleat bags as thousands of media cameras snap pictures of their heartbroken faces.

Since it is a single-elimination game, tiebreakers are put in place. Games that remain tied after 12 innings will now employ a tiebreaker system (similar to the World Baseball Classic, in which teams start their innings with runners on first and second and no outs). Games will go on until a winner is determined. This does not apply to the finals, which is allowed to go 15 innings with no changes to the rules, and if still tied, get played again from scratch the next day.

Ticket Info

Here is a breakdown of the costs:

Seat TypeCost
Central (Behind Home) Seats¥4,200
1st & 3rd Base Infield Seats (Adult)¥3.700
1st & 3rd Base Infield Seats (Kids)¥1,200
1st & 3rd Base Alps (Outfield) Seats¥1,400
Outfield Seats (Adult)¥1,000
Outfield Seats (Kid)¥500
Central (Behind Home) Full Tournament Reserved Seats???
1st & 3rd Base Full Tournament Unreserved Seats???

For the record, starting times are as follows: 4-game days: 8:00am; 3-game days: 9:30am; 2-game days: 11:00am; Finals: 12:30 or 1:00pm. Subsequent games on those days are scheduled to start 2.5 hours after the preceding game, though extra-inning games sometimes force a slight delay in the start times of upcoming games.

For advanced sales, click here. (Japanese only)

SIngle-day tickets are good for the entire day, regardless of how many games are played. Unless all games are canceled due to inclement weather, there are no refunds.

Classic Matches

2006 – A Tale of Two Arms

Waseda Jitsugyo vs. Tomakomai: Yuki Saito (Waseda) and Masahiro Tanaka (Tomakomai) square off in a battle of the arms. Saito threw every inning (24 of them) for Waseda, while Tanaka threw 20. In Game 1, just two runs were scored, both in the 8th inning. When no winner was determined after 15 innings, they took the rest of the day off and played again the next day. In Game 2, Waseda jumped out to a quick lead in the first, after which Tanaka came in. They got a second run in the second, and two more during the middle of the game. Tomakomai picked up one in the sixth and two in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough. Still, this game wowed fans across the nation for TWO days!

1998 – The Beast of the Heisei Era

PL Gakuen vs. Yokohama: Daisuke Matsuzaka (Yokohama) threw 17 innings in this quarterfinals rematch of the two best high school teams in the land (Yokohama also beat PL in the spring tournament on their way to the title). PL held leads of 3-0, 4-2 and 5-4, but Yokohama tied the game up in the top of the eighth. Each team put up a run in the 11th, and again in the 16th, before Yokohama finally prevailed in the 17th inning, to win 9-7. Matsuzaka threw 250 pitches and also added three hits as his team eventually won the summer title as well. In that finals match, he merely threw a no-hitter to cap off his Koshien career. No big deal. Videos and details (Japanese) here.

1996 – The Miracle Throw Home

Matsuyama Shogyo vs. Kumamoto Kogyo: With the game knotted up at three in the bottom of the 10th, Kumamoto was raring to walk off the field as champions. They had a runner on third and just one out. Their batter hit one moderately deep to right, and the ball was caught quite easily, but it looked as though the runner would easily score on the touch up. However, the right fielder threw a dart to the catcher, ending the inning. Matsuyama would put up a three-spot in the top of the 11th and leave the field as champs.

1992 – Keeping Godzilla at Bay

Meitoku vs. Seiryo (Round 2): There was a slugger named Hideki Matsui. He wielded a pretty fierce stick. Other teams knew about it, and didn’t want to be on his highlight reels. Matsui, you see, had hit three homers in his first two games in the spring tournament that year. He was a sure-fire first-round pick in the upcoming draft. And so, Meitoku got crafty… five plate appearances, five intentional walks. He came up in the first inning of this game with two outs and a runner on third. Then in the third inning with one out and runners on second and third. Again in the fifth with one out and a runner on first. Then in the seventh with the bases empty and two outs. And finally, in the ninth with the tying run on third and two outs. He saw no pitches to hit. His team lost. 

1978 – Ninth Inning Rally x 2

PL Gakuen Comes Back Twice: The team from Osaka pulled off two straight miracles. In the semi-finals, they were down by 4 in the bottom of the 9th, and tied it up. They would go on to win the game in extras. The next day, in the finals, they were down by 2 in the bottom of the 9th. They didn’t wait until extra innings to make their comeback this time. Three runs scored and they were unlikely champs. Knocked down, but not out.

Current Hanshin Tigers’ Experience

  • Yuki Nishi (Mie: Komono), 2008 – first round
  • Takumi Akiyama (Ehime: Ehime Saijo), 2009 – first round
  • Kento Itohara (Shimane: Kaisei), 2010 – first round
  • Koutaro Ohtake (Kumamoto: Seiseiko), 2012 – third round
  • Ryo Watanabe (Yamanashi: Tokaidai Kofu), 2012 – semifinals
  • Takahiro Kumagai (Miyagi: Sendai Ikuei), 2012 – third round, 2013 – second round
  • Haruto Takahashi (Shizuoka: Tokoha University), 2012 – first round
  • Masashi Itoh (Kanagawa: Yokohama), 2013 – third round
  • Yuto Takahama (Kanagawa: Yokohama), 2013 – third round
  • Takumu Nakano (Yamagata: Nichidai Yamagata), 2013 – semifinals
  • Kai Ueda (Shiga: Ohmi), 2014 – third round
  • Hiroshi Toyoda (Kanagawa: Tokai Sagami), 2015 – CHAMPIONS
  • Ryo Itoh (Aichi: Chukyo), 2017 – first round
  • Masaki Oyokawa (Kanagawa: Yokohama), 2017 – first round; 2018 – third round
  • Junya Nishi (Hiroshima: Soshi Gakuen), 2018 – second round
  • Riku Kawahara (Nagasaki: Soseikan), 2018 – first round → lost to J. Nishi
  • Kyosuke Noguchi (Nagasaki: Soseikan), 2018 – first round → lost to J. Nishi
  • Kota Inoue (Osaka: Riseisha), 2019 – CHAMPIONS
  • Kento Fujita (Aichi: Chukyo), 2019 – semifinals
  • Jo Endo (Kanagawa: Tokai Sagami), 2019 – third round
  • Ukyo Maegawa (Nara: Chiben Gakuen), 2019 – second round; 2021 – finals
  • Hayato Nakagawa (Kyoto: Kyoto International), 2021 – semifinals
  • Reiji Toi (Nara: Tenri), 2022 – second round
  • Shuya Yamada (Miyagi: Sendai Ikuei), 2022 – CHAMPIONS; 2023 – finals
  • Aoi Momosaki (Kumamoto: Tokai Sagami), 2023 – first round
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