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Saitama was moved from the North Division to the Capital Division in 2025 and settled in nicely to their new home. The Sting had the Japan League’s best record at 101-61 for their third playoff berth in five years. They finished six games ahead of Chiba, while last year’s division winner Tokyo dropped to 79-83. The #2 seed went to Fukuoka, who won their sixth consecutive West Division at 99-63. The Frogs were five wins better than Kumamoto.

Kobe at 98-64 barely won the Central Division and was only three games away from the top seed. The Blaze won their third consecutive division title. Osaka (97-65) and Nagoya (94-69) were both close behind the Blaze in the Central. The Orange Sox and 96-68 Chiba picked up the two wild cards, while the Nightowls and 94-69 Monsters were the first teams out. Osaka ended a four-year playoff drought and the Comets got their second berth in three years. The Orange Sox notably outperformed their expected win/loss by 11 games.

The big turnaround came from Niigata, winning the North Division at 91-71 over reigning East Asian Baseball champ Sapporo at 87-75. The Green Dragons snapped a 14-year playoff drought, which was the longest active skid in the Japan League. They hadn’t been above .500 since 2018. Kumamoto now has the longest active drought as theirs grew to 14. Niigata led the league in scoring with 709 runs and Chiba allowed the fewest at 497.

Leading Niigata’s offense was 1B To****sugu Kobayashi, who repeated as Japan League MVP. The 26-year old lefty led in hits (222), batting average (.367), on-base percentage (.427), wRC+ (222), and WAR (10.5). Kobayashi added 109 runs, 39 doubles, 28 homers, 102 RBI, and 1.020 OPS. It would be the final season in Japan for the 6’7’’ slugger, who departed for Major League Baseball in the offseason on an eight-year, $233,400,000 deal with Philadelphia.

Veteran lefty Nobuyoshi Yamauchi won his third Pitcher of the Year in his first season for Kobe. He had spent the prior 13 years with Osaka, winning the top honor way back in 2015 and 2017. Many were shocked when the Orange Sox traded him to their divisional foe Blaze in March, especially since he had still pitched respectably, including an ERA title the prior year.

Yamauchi was in the last year of his deal and Osaka wasn’t sure he’d stay. Kobe locked him up to a four-year, $96,800,000 extension after his 2025 resurgence. Yamauchi led in WHIP (0.85), quality starts (25), and shutouts (4). He posted a 2.07 ERA over 261 innings, 297 strikeouts, 20-6 record, 155 ERA+, and 7.4 WAR.

In the brand new wild card round, both division winners advanced over the wild card teams with Niigata over Osaka 2-1 and Kobe over Chiba 2-0. Top seed Saitama ousted the Green Dragons 3-1 in the divisional series while the Blaze upset Fukuoka 3-2.

Kobe hadn’t gotten to the Japan League Championship Series since all the way back in 1994 with a pennant drought back to 1984. The Sting had made it to the JLCS in 2021, but their lone title was nearly a century prior in 1930. Few were even alive to remember Saitama as Japan League champ since it happened before World War II. Incidentally, the Sting’s 1930 JCLS win came over the Blaze.

The series went all seven games for the first time since 2019. For only the second time in JLCS history (1987), all seven games were won by the home team. This allowed the top seed Saitama to defeat Kobe and end their 94-year Japan League title drought.



Two-time defending Korea League champ Busan repeated as the top seed by winning the South Division at 98-64. The Blue Jays grew their playoff streak to six with their fourth division title of the run. It wasn’t a cakewalk though as the next best two records in the KL were right behind them in the South.

Changwon (94-68) and Daegu (93-69) took the first two wild cards to continue both teams’ general recent success. The Crabs playoff streak grew to five with their ninth berth in a decade. The Diamondbacks secured their third playoff trip in four years. It was Daegu who led the league in scoring in 2025 with 790 runs.

Bucheon allowed the fewest runs (565), enabling them to win the North Division at 92-70. It was the second division title in three years for the Bolts. Hamhung was second at 88-74, which was good enough to get the new third wild card slot over Yongin (86-76), Suwon (85-77), Pyongyang (83-79), and Goyang (82-80). The Heat ended a four-year postseason drought. Last year’s North Division champ Seongnam collapsed to 68-94, their first losing season since 2013.

After earning a wild card in 2024, Gwangju fell to 72-90 in 2025. That didn’t stop 1B Han Yi from repeating as Korea League MVP. The 24-year old lefty led in hits (201), homers (58), RBI (133), total bases (409), slugging (.682), OPS (1.068), wRC+ (186), and WAR (8.9). Yi had 108 runs with a .335 average and .386 OBP.

Pitcher of the Year went to Kwang-Il Chang in his second year with Busan. He joined the Blue Jays for 2024 on a six-year, $121,200,000 following runs with Bucheon and Incheon. The 30-year old lefty led in wins (23-5), and WHIP (0.85). Chang posted a 2.36 ERA over 252 innings with 281 strikeouts, 159 ERA+, and 6.9 WAR.

Daegu edged Hamhung 2-1 in the wild card round, then carried the momentum into a shocking divisional series sweep of defending champion Busan. This gave the Diamondbacks their third Korea League Championship Series trip in four years. Bucheon outlasted Changwon 3-2 on the other side for the Bolts’ first KLCS trip since 2012. Bucheon had home field advantage as a division winner, but Daegu won the KLCS 4-2 for their second pennant in four years. The Diamondbacks lead all teams with 16 Korea League crowns to their name.



Although the 105^th East Asian Championship had a finals “regular” in Daegu, it was Saitama rolling to their first-ever championship 4-1. The Sting became the 27^th different EAB franchise to win it all. This left Suwon and Daejeon as the only of EAB’s original teams to never win it all through 105 seasons. The Snappers have at least made it to the finals thrice, while the Ducks never have.

Finals MVP was 1B Masakazu Sunagawa, who returned to Saitama in 2025 as a free agent. He had been drafted by the Sting in 2017, but was traded for 2021 to Tokyo. In 16 playoff starts, the 30-year old three-time Gold Glove winner had 16 hits, 10 runs, 1 double, 3 triples, 6 home runs, and 14 RBI. Sunagawa also hit for the cycle during the series.



Saitama matched MLB’s Seattle Grizzlies for the longest time in pro baseball history between a franchise’s founding and its first overall championship at 105 years. Right behind was CABA’s Nicaragua Navigators, who finally won it all in their 104^th season.

Other notes: 2025 was the final season for seven-time MVP Hitoshi Kubota at age 43, who struggled in 75 games for Kyoto in his 24^th season. The long-time Hiroshima LF joined Soo-Geun Yim as the only members of EAB’s 900 home run club, but his 905 fell short of Yim’s record 921.

Kubota’s 2098 RBI, 153.3 offensive WAR, and 1956 runs were each second on the leaderboard at retirement. Byung-Oh Tan remained the runs leader (2010), Yim the RBI king (2279), and Sosuke Hoshizawa the WARlord (156.9). Kubota also retied fifth in hits with 3408 and had a blistering 196 wRC+ for his career, putting himself in the conversation for EAB’s greatest ever player and for the Japanese GOAT.

In other milestones, Jae-A Choi became the 34^th to score 1500 runs. He and Yeo-San Park reached 500 home runs to make that a 73-player club. Toshikuni Naikai became the 42^nd pitcher to 3500 strikeouts. 67 pitchers were now at 200+ wins with the additions of Il-Hwan Lee, Yun-Jae Paek, Jong-Dae Om, and Hiroshi Yama****a in 2025.

RF Kunihiko Ishiguro won his 9^th Silver Slugger. SS Min-Jae Lim earned his 8^th Slugger and 2B Dae-Eui Ha got his 7^th. Saitama’s Si-Won Joon set a bad playoff record by allowing 45 hits, although part of that was a function of tossing 37.1 innings. He had a 4.10 ERA with 44 strikeouts. Gwangju’s Seung-Ho Lee tossed his second no-hitter.