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As baseball’s popularity continued to grow worldwide, it had also continued to grow in the already strong hotbeds of Japan and Korea. East Asia Baseball had once expanded back in 1978 and close to 50 years later felt the time was right to expand again. Some worried that the densely populated countries would have a tough time finding pockets that didn’t already have an existing fan base. Some franchises were also concerned about losing some market share, but most agreed that expansion almost certainly meant more money for all.

The Japan League and Korea League were both looking at growth, but had different ideas for the best way to do it. Both eventually settled on the idea of bringing four teams into the fold, but officially didn’t want to do it all at once. Adding eight teams so quickly had the potential to dilute the talent pool and disrupt the competitive balance. As plans continued into the 2010s and 2020s, it was clear that Japan had more ready-made markets for expansion than the Koreas. Thus, the plan was made to expand the JL by four teams with a KL expansion later down the line.



The two leagues had different alignments at that point with the Japan League favoring four divisions of four teams and the Korea League with two divisions of eight. Adding four teams to the JL made a logical move to four divisions of five teams. For the sake of geographic balance, they didn’t simply add one new team to each division. Part of that was due to the less-populated northern region of Honshu receiving two of the four new franchises.

With that, Saitama was moved out of the North Division and joined the Capital Division. The expansion Utsuomiya Undertakers and Maebashi Bunnies entered the North Division, the Hamamatsu Chickenhawks were added to the Central Division, and the Okayama Ocelots joined the West Division.



The expansion talks also prompted discussions of expanding the postseason. Previously both teams sent four teams into the playoffs. For the Japan League, it was just the four division winners, while the Korea League sent its two division winners and wild cards. Especially in Japan, some had disliked the format with some strong second place teams getting left out in favor of a weaker division champ elsewhere. Both leagues decided to change their playoff formats, but the math was different.

The Japan League opted to add two wild card teams who would face the two weakest division winners in a best-of-three wild card series hosted by the division champ. The #1 and #2 seeds would get byes into the best-of-five divisional series and face the wild card round winners.

Meanwhile as the KL didn’t expand, they opted to add only one new wild card team. The #4 would host the #5 seed in a best-of-three with the winner facing the top seed, while the #2 division winner faced the best wild card in the divisional series. The Korea League wouldn’t add a sixth playoff team until they did their own expansion ultimately in 2030.

One last change for 2025 was a win scored by the players who got EAB to lower the service time required for free agency from six to only five years. EAB had oscillated between six and seven years required through its history. The only other world league that had a five-year minimum was the Oceania Baseball Association. Eurasian Professional Baseball was the most restrictive at ten seasons with everyone else in the middle somewhere.