Making the Trip to Japan

There's a big store at Tokyo Dome. Of course, it focuses on the Giants, but there are goods for some of the other teams there as well. At least, the last time I was there. I've seen booths outside Jingu and Tokyo Dome on game days selling goods for both the home and away teams (including Pacific League games).

If you head out to Chiba, they have a good sized store within the stadium. Going down to Yokohama, the BayStars' goods store is just across the street from JR Kannai Station - the stop where Yokohama Stadium is.

Sogo department stores usually have a Giants' section. The local Daiei (in Yokohama) carries Giants, BayStars, and Hawks caps, as well as MLB caps for all the teams that have Japanese players. They haven't always had such a "wide" selection. But what they lack are T-shirts and other goods (except Sogo's Giants' section).

Hope this helps. And have a good trip.

I just realized (4 months later - timely, eh?) that I never posted a follow-up on this. The trip was excellent. Didn't make it to a game but saw lots on TV. Did find a lot of hats though. Tokyo Dome had a couple of shops; one devoted to the Kyojin (Giants) and another with all of the teams' hats as well as jerseys, etc. Keio Dept store in Shinjuku had a pretty expansive Tigers' section, and this was in May (did they know something we didn't?). Lions had a small store in Harajuku where I picked up a cool Lions/Nike logo hat.

The most interesting find has been recently when I came across a site called StarStruck (go to the baseball section, then the International league section). They have a line of Nippon League wool fitted hats with the mascot on the front and logo on the back available right here in the U.S.! These are great quality. I have the Tigers' and Dragons' caps.

The interesting thing about these caps at Starstruck is that the logos have all been pirated. So once the NPB teams find out, there may well be a legal battle or two. So you'll have Asian sports teams suing an American company for trademark piracy. Delicious irony.

Hmmm. That thought didn't occur to me. They don't have any sort of team logo or even league logo stitched on the inside, just a vague "Japanese Baseball" label on the inside. Maybe I shouldn't have posted a link if they're not licensed goods.

Anybody know how that works in the NPB anyways? Does the league sell licenses to the logos or do the individual teams sell them?

The individual teams sell licenses for use of the logos. NPB is not involved as far as I know. And the licensees pay a lot of money for the use of the logos and for the right to sell official merchandise.

I suspect that Starstruck assumes that no team will be bothered taking action against them. They could be right, but piracy is still piracy. I just think it's interesting that the Chinese are always held up to be the villains regarding trademark violations, but here an American company is involved.