Steriods in Japanese Baseball

I take it you're referring to the 1996 MVP winner Ken Kominiti's (sp?) recent interview in Sports Illustrated where he said that the MVP is won by sterioids' use, and that at least half the recipiants use them, including himself. (All of the above was reported in May 30th's Nikkan Sports.)

I've never heard of any Japanese using steroids, but with the increase of Japanese training in the U.S., it wouldn't surpise me if some have given them a try. But there certainly aren't any who look like McGuier.

Many Japanese players do advertise and/or drink some of the energy drinks sold in Japan. It was mentioned a couple of years ago that they will test positive for drugs according to the Olympic Commission. The purpose of the energy drinks, though, are to keep Japan's office workers awake with little sleep, not necessarily to enhance physical ability.

Finally, because Japan doesn't have the illegal drug problem that the U.S. has, drug testing in general just isn't an issue. I'm sure that ball players, like all employees of medium to large companies, have their urine tested at least once a year. But the tests are generally geared toward fining naturally occurring problems with the body, not detecting what drugs a person is using. They're health tests, not drug tests. Society is fundementally different here.

Yes, there is drug abuse in Japan. If there weren't, there wouldn't be anti-drug commercials on TV. They're generally geared toward young people who like to copy whatever comes out of Hollywood. When drug incidents increased from 4 to 13 in Tokyo for the year a few years back, it was seen to be an epidemic. Does this help to show what a difference there is?

There's only two players in J-Ball I would suspect of using steroids and those would be Norihiro Nakamura and Kazuhiro Kiyohara. However, there's never been any proof that they use them and drug control laws in Japan are real strict. Fwiw, Ichiro says he thinks that there is no steroid abuse in Japanese baseball.

Porn mags, like drugs, have also been illegal for years in Japan, but who needs them with the Internet? As a recent HBO Real Sports story showed, the Internet has made your ability to get steroids infinately easier. No longer are you having to go to seedy dealers or jacked up gym rats. Instead your just a few key strokes away from steroids, Viagra, or whatever. And lets not get into this whole "The mail is screened better in Japan." talk. It's not. Personal experience showed me how easy it was to use the system with no problems. If it's not an issue now, then steroids will be sooner than later. If there is no testing in place, then Caminiti's message on how to score the contract of a lifetime will reach the other side of the Pacific. Funny thing is, only a few weeks ago Jose Canseco had a similar message, but was dismissed by the American media as just being bitter about his exit from baseball. His brother Ozzie spent some time in Japan and had the same build as his brother. Was he on steroids? Maybe. In the end though, steroids do not increase your ability to make contact with the ball, just to drive it harder and further, while ironically, cutting your life short like Lyle Alzado and John Matuszak. Quite a trade off for the contact of a lifetime.

If there is team testing, and a team who wins a championship finds out that a few players were juiced up, would they turn them in and disgrace their own championship? I don't think so.

See also this thread for more background information.

I agree with Mr. Garland-I think both Kiyohara and Nakamura have "juiced-up" bodies. I'd like to add a few more names to that list.

Although he's a pitcher, I think Masumi Kuwata was on steroids earlier in his career. He was a skinny runt who became Rambo and then sort of leveled off after getting injured so often. Another guy who bulked up (with steroids probably) and got injured easily as a result was Hiroo Ishii. Another guy who had a unnatural body was the former Orix and Yakult slugger Takahashi, and he also got injured often. These guys got injured more often than most players. Coincidence? Maybe, but it's likely it was a result of strain on their bodies from the juice.

When Japanese players like Kiyohara go to the U.S. for "training", it's likely that they're going to the U.S. for a lot more than that.

First, porn mags are openly available in Japan, though they are supposed to have the naughty bits concealed by mosaic. The more explicit porn mags you have in the U.S. aren't supposed to be brought into the country unless they have been "altered" to comply with Japanese law. However, if you know where to go, you can still get uncensored porn, so the writer is correct by and large.

As for Satoshi Takahashi using steroids, anything's possible, I guess. I don't think so, though and that's just a hunch. I know what you mean about Kuwata. Considering what he's allegedly been into, it's possible.

I believe that no player in Japan takes steroids. Kiyohara was already huge when he came out of high school. Nakamura is just fat. He reminds me of Futoshi Nakanishi.

With all the steroid hype, its nice to see the little man Ichiro hitting .376 en route to his 2nd consectutive MVP, Batting Champ year.

Seiyu-san, I truly do respect your opinion, but I believe that Kiyohara did use some sort of muscle-enhancing supplement to bulk up. Whether or not that supplement was steroids will probably never be known, but there was a doctor who was quoted by Sports Illustrated in the now infamous Ken Caminiti article as saying that unless you are a genetic freak, it is nearly impossible for a man to gain 30 lbs of muscle once you pass the age of 30.

Now I know that Kiyo was big before ealry in his career, but if you compare his body now to the one before, there's a huge difference. It's like when you see pictures of guys like Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, etc. from early in their careers. There's no way all that bulking up was done naturally.

Plus, Kiyo has been known to get injured often and his injuries are usually something like a muscle tear or pull or something like that. That should set off alarms already.

Well, you might be right then. Kiyohara does have a pea brain.

Kiyohara lands on the DL again. I'm firmly convinced now that Kiyohara was or is on steroids. Here is a guy who used to play in almost all of his team's games back when he was younger and less bulky while playing with the Seibu Lions and now he can't get through even half a season without suffering from some kind of muscle tear whether it's in his ribs or his thighs or wherever.

The bulked-up Kiyohara breaks down more often than a Hyundai. Human bodies were not designed to be that bulky. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted that he took steroids when he first started to seriously weight-lift. It's time for Kiyohara to fess up also.