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American Baseball vs. Japanese Yakyu

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American Baseball vs. Japanese Yakyu
In Japan, most names of sports are in katakana: tennis, soccer, badminton. I wonder why the word for baseball is in kanji: yakyu.

Is there any difference in the way the game is played, scored, talked about, or thought about between the two sports?
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Re: American Baseball vs. Japanese Yakyu
[ Author: seiyu | Posted: Oct 29, 2002 10:58 PM ]

Laura, it depends on how early the sports were introduced to Japan. Baseball was introduced in the 1880s and immediately became popular among the general public. Tennis was also introduced early and is also called "teikyu," which means "garden ball." However, the word tennis stuck probably because its ease of pronunciation. Also, the popularity of tennis came much later to the general public.
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