This study uses a Transpacific transnationalism lens to explain how baseball?introduced initially to Brazil by U.S. expatriates?took root through Japanese migration. Existing literature separated American diffusion, Nikkei community history, and global sport business; combining mega-region and transnationalism theory, this study proposes the Transpacific Transnational Social Field to integrate these strands. Japanese immigrants transformed weekend colonia play into organized clubs (Mikado, Alianca), regional leagues, and the 1936 All-Brazil Tournament; after wartime rupture, the 1958 immigration semicentennial ballpark, Japanese corporate sponsorship, and the 1990 founding of the CBBS scaled the game nationally and globally, enabling milestones such as WBC participation. These circulations moved not only players but equipment supply chains, coaching philosophies, and ritual forms that tethered local identity to wider Pacific imaginaries. In doing so, the study extends Brazilian sport historiography beyond soccer and shows how migrant leisure practices can crystallize into durable civic and institutional infrastructure. The continued prevalence of Japanese surnames alongside rising non-Nikkei participation signals a shift from an ethnic enclave sport toward a multicultural Brazilian baseball culture; the sport’s growth closely tracks Nikkei migration and settlement. Limitations include reliance on secondary sources, insufficient Japanese- and Portuguese-language primary and oral history materials, incomplete longitudinal statistics, and the absence of comparative Transpacific sport cases, all of which constrain generalization. Future research should broaden multilingual archival and oral history work, assemble standardized time-series datasets, and pursue comparative studies to test and refine the Transpacific Transnational Social Field model. Policy-focused studies linking school physical education, municipal facility development, and diaspora partnerships could evaluate how such transnational infrastructures foster broader intercultural inclusion.
동북아시아문화학회 [The Association of North-east Asian Cultures]
설립연도
2000
분야
복합학>학제간연구
소개
동북아시아 문화의 다양성과 정체성을 연구 토론하고, 지역내 문화 교류의 다양한 모습을 연구하고 문화변동의 큰 틀을 집적함으로써 우리 민족 문화 및 상대 민족의 문화적 터전을 이해하여 문화공동체적 특성을 계발하고 상호 관련성의 강화를 유도하는 학술활동을 통해 동북아시아의 문화발전에 이바지함.