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The formally Yomiuri Kyojingun and still known by the nickname巨人 are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyō, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They have played their home games at Tokyo Dome since its opening in 1988. The team's owner is The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomerate which also owns two newspapers (including the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun) and the Nippon Television Network (which includes flagship Nippon TV).
The Giants are the oldest professional sports team in Japan. They are also by far the most successful, having won 22 Japan Series titles and an additional nine in the era of NPB's forerunner, the Japanese Baseball League. Their main rivalry is with the Hanshin Tigers, a team especially popular in the Kansai region. The Yomiuri Giants are regarded as "The New York Yankees of Japan" due to their widespread popularity, past dominance of the league, and polarizing effect on fans. Most Japanese baseball fans who are indifferent about teams other than their local team often have an intense dislike for the Giants; on the other hand, the Giants have a large fan base even in cities that have a team of their own.
The English-language press occasionally calls the team the Tokyo Giants, but that name has not been in use in Japan for decades. (Lefty O'Doul, a former Major League Baseball player, named the team "Tokyo Giants" in the mid-1930s.) Instead, the team is officially known by the name of its corporate owner, just like the Hanshin Tigers and Orix Buffaloes. The team is often referred by fans and in news headlines and tables simply as the Japanese word for 'giant(s)', instead of the usual corporate owner's name or the English nickname.
The Yomiuri Giants name and uniforms were based on the New York (now San Francisco) Giants. The team's colors (orange and black) are the same colors worn by the National League's Giants (both then as now in both New York and San Francisco). The stylized lettering on the team's jerseys and caps is similar to the fancy lettering used by the Giants when they played in New York in the 1930s, although during the 1970s the Yomiuri Giants modernized their lettering to follow the style worn by the San Francisco Giants.
In 1935, the team traveled to the United States and faced off against college and minor league teams, ultimately playing 109 games in 128 days (including 34 games on 17 days as doubleheaders) across the country. The tour ended with a record of 75 wins, 33 losses, and 1 draw.
When they faced off against the San Francisco Seals, the manager of the Seals, Lefty O'Doul, stated the team needed a promotional name, as just the team being named "Tokyo Dai Nippon Baseball Club" wouldn't mean anything of note to Americans, and because the tour was heavily funded with ticket sales. He suggested that since Tokyo was the New York of Japan, they should emulate one of the two named MLB teams in New York; either the Yankees or the Giants (New York's first professional baseball team and at that point the more successful team). As "" was immediately out of the question, due to it being a uniquely American name, O'Doul suggested the name "Giants", also thanks to the fact that coincidentally, O'Doul was formerly of the Giants himself, and the team adopted the Tokyo Giants moniker mid-tour.
However, the Giants name would face minor challenging from Shōriki himself after the tour, as he wanted to name the team the Tokyo Golden Kites, after the Order of the Golden Kite, a military order of the Empire of Japan (which would be abolished in 1947 following World War II). The players, however, would hold firm, and Shōriki would retain the Giants name.
Russian-born pitcher Victor Starffin, nicknamed "the blue-eyed Japanese", starred for the team until 1944. One of the league's premier pitchers, he won two MVP awards and a Best Nine award, and won at least 26 games in six different years, winning a league-record 42 games in 1939. He followed his record-setting performance with another 38 wins in 1940. Pitcher Eiji Sawamura co-starred with Starffin on the Kyojin. He pitched the first no-hitter in Japanese pro baseball, on September 25, 1936, as well as two others. In 1937, he went 33–10 with a 1.38 earned run average. From 1937 to 1943 Sawamura had a record of 63–22, 554 strikeouts, and a 1.74 ERA. Sawamura was conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army in 1938, 1941, and 1943; he returned to play for the Giants between deployments, though injuries and time away hindered his form and velocity. He was released by the team in 1943, then killed in battle when his ship was torpedoed near the end of the Second World War.
Outfielder Haruyasu Nakajima was a featured hitter during the franchise's first decade-and-a-half, and as player-manager led the Kyojin to a championship in 1941. Tetsuharu Kawakami was a team fixture from 1938 to 1958, winning the batting title five times, two home run crowns, three RBI titles, and had six titles for the most hits in a season. He was the first player in Japanese pro baseball to achieve 2,000 hits and was named the league's MVP three times. Leadoff man Shosei Go starred for the team from 1937 to 1943, winning league MVP in 1943. Only and , he was nicknamed "The Human Locomotive" due to his speed.
Pitcher Hideo Fujimoto (also known as Hideo Nakagami) pitched for the team for 12 seasons from 1942 to 1955. He holds the Japanese records for lowest career ERA (1.90) and seasonal ERA (0.73 in 1943), as well as best all-time winning percentage (.697). He threw two career no-hitters, including the first perfect game in Japanese professional baseball. In addition, he served as the Giants' player-manager in 1944 (there was no 1945 season) and part of 1946.
In 1950, the Giants were one of the founding members of Nippon Professional Baseball, joining the Central League.
Slugger Noboru Aota starred for the Giants from 1948 to 1952, winning the home run championship twice, and hitting a home run in the 1951 Japan Series, when the Giants defeated the Nankai Hawks 4 games to 2 for their first NPB championship. The Giants would also win Japan Series championships in 1952, 1953, and 1955, all over the Nankai Hawks. The team was the Central League champion every year from 1955 to 1959, winning the Japan Series championship in 1955, but they lost four consecutive Japan Series thereafter, with the first three losses coming against the Nishitetsu Lions, and then the Hawks finally got their revenge to close out the decade.
World career home run record holder Sadaharu Oh starred for the Giants from 1959 to 1980, and fellow Hall of Famer Shigeo Nagashima played for the team from 1958 to 1974. The Giants lineup, consisting of Oh batting third and Nagashima batting fourth, was nicknamed the ON Hou, ("Oh-Nagashima Cannon") as the two players emerged as the best hitters in the league. Now the team's manager, Tetsuharu Kawakami led the Giants to nine consecutive Japan Series championships from 1965 to 1973, and Oh and Nagashima dominated the batting titles during this period. During his career, Oh was a five-time batting champion and fifteen-time home-run champion, and won the Central League most valuable player award nine times. Nagashima won the season MVP award five times, and the Best Nine Award every single year of his career (a total 17 times). Future Hall of Famer Tsuneo Horiuchi pitched for the team during its heyday, from 1966 to 1983. The renowned left-hander Masaichi Kaneda pitched for the team from 1965 to 1969, later having his number retired by the Giants.
Shigeo Nagashima was appointed manager of the Giants almost immediately after his retirement in 1974, staying in that position until 1980. After a couple of down years the Giants re-assumed their dominant position in the Central League, winning league championships in 1976 and 1977. Sadaharu Oh rejoined the team as manager from 1984 to 1988. Nagashima returned as Giants manager from 1993 to 2001, winning Japan Series championships in 1994, 1996, and 2000.
Outfielder Hideki Matsui starred for the Giants for ten seasons in the 1990s and early 2000s before migrating to Major League Baseball. He was a three-time NPB MVP, leading his team to four Japan Series, winning three titles (1994, 2000 and 2002), and earning the popular nickname "Godzilla". He also made nine consecutive All-Star Games and led the league in and RBIs three times.
| 1936–1942 | .715 |
| 1943 | .667 |
| 1944 | .576 |
| 1946 | .625 |
| 1946–1947 | .564 |
| 1947–1949 | .600 |
| 1950–1960 | .639 |
| 1961–1974 | .590 |
| 1975–1980 | .533 |
| 1981–1983 | .588 |
| 1984–1988 | .568 |
| 1989–1992 | .587 |
| 1993–2001 | .538 |
| 2002–2003 | .535 |
| 2004–2005 | .480 |
| 2006–2015 | .572 |
| 2016–2018 | .502 |
| 2019–2023 | .524 |
| 2024–present | .566 |
The Giants-Tigers feud began on July 15, 1936 in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, at a time when Japanese clubs besides the Tigers did not have set home ballparks, and would bounce around wherever they could play. This game would set the tone for the history-setting rivalry, as the first home run in Giants professional club history would come on that day at the hands of Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame member Haruyasu Nakajima off Tigers' ace Tadashi Wakabayashi, but the Tigers would win the game 8-7. On September 25, 1936, young Giants ace Eiji Sawamura threw the first no-hitter in Japanese professional baseball history against the Tigers at Hanshin Koshien Stadium. He would be the only Giants pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Koshien until Shosei Togo did it on May 24, 2024.
The Giants-Tigers rivalry has seen mostly the Giants enjoy long standing periods of success at the expense of the Tigers. From to , the Giants won the Central League pennant over the Tigers in each of the four seasons; however, the Giants would lose all 4 of their Japan Series appearances during that time, three times to the Nishitetsu Lions (now the Saitama Seibu Lions) from 1956 to , and once to the Nankai Hawks (now the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks) in 1959. Most notably during this time, the only ever baseball , or "Match viewed by the Emperor" happened on June 25th, 1959, where Emperor Hirohito decided to watch the game between the Tigers and Giants; Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima would walk off future Tigers legend Minoru Murayama in the bottom of the 9th as the Giants won 5-4. During the Giants' V9 dynasty, where the Giants would win a record setting 9 consecutive Japan Series championships from to , the Tigers would finish 2nd in the Central League 5 of the 9 seasons, including 3 consecutive second place finishes from to .
As of the end of the season, the Giants have the edge in Japan Series championships, 22–2, Central League pennants, 39–6, overall championships, 31–6, and the Giants lead the Tigers head to head, 1127–888–77. The Giants and Tigers have met in the Climax Series 5 times, in which the Giants lead the overall head-to-head matchup 11-6-0, winning the series 4 times to the Tigers' 1.
Since Yakult added Tokyo to the Swallows name in 2006, the Giants lead the head-to-head regular season series 260–184–19. Overall, since the Swallows were founded in 1950, the Giants lead the head-to-head regular season series 1094–758–61. The Swallows and Giants have met in the Climax Series 4 times, in which Yakult lead the head-to-head matchups 9–4–1 (including Yakult's 1 advantage win in the 2015 and 2021 Central League Climax Series), winning the series 3 times to the Giants' 1 series win.
The Giants and one of the teams that would eventually form the Dragons, then known as the Nagoya Shachihoko, first met on February 5, 1936 at in the suburbs of Nagoya, marking the first ever game in the history of the Japanese Professional Baseball League, which is now known as Nippon Professional Baseball. The Shachihoko, later known as Nagoya Kinko, would be absorbed into the Nagoya Baseball Club in 1943 as their parent company, the Nagoya Shimbun, was forced to merge into rival newspaper company Shin-Aichi Shimbun under the , creating Chubu-Nippon Shimbun, or Chunichi Shimbun as it is known today. This created the Sangyo Baseball Club, which is now known as today's Chunichi Dragons.
Like the Giants-Tigers rivalry, the Giants have enjoyed long standing success at the expense of the Dragons, creating animosity amongst Dragons fans. This came to a head in the finale of the 1994 NPB season, where the Giants and Dragons were tied in the standings, each sitting at 69-60-0. The Giants would win that game and the Central League pennant by a score of 6-3, in what would be known as the , and eventually would win the 1994 Japan Series over the Seibu Lions.
Since Nagoya Kinko merged into the Nagoya Baseball Club in 1943, the Giants lead the Dragons in Japan Series championships, 22-2, Central League pennants, 39-9, and head-to-head, 1061-871-61. The Giants and Dragons have met in the Climax Series 5 times, in which the overall head-to-head is tied, 12-12-1, including 1 game advantage wins in the 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012 Central League Climax Series. The Giants also have won the head to head series in the Climax Series 3 times to Chunichi's 2.
| 1 | Sadaharu Oh | 868 | 1959–1980 |
| 2 | Shigeo Nagashima | 444 | 1958–1974 |
| 3 | Shinnosuke Abe | 406 | 2001–2019 |
| 4 | Tatsunori Hara | 382 | 1981–1995 |
| 5 | Hideki Matsui | 332 | 1993–2002 |
| 6 | Yoshinobu Takahashi | 321 | 1998–2015 |
| 7 | Hayato Sakamoto | 298 | 2008–ongoing |
| 8 | Kazuma Okamoto | 277 | 2015-2025 |
| 9 | Isao Shibata | 194 | 1962–1981 |
| 10 | Kazuhiro Kiyohara | 185 | 1997–2005 |
| Playoffs |
| Did not qualify |
| Lost in League Final Stage, 0–4 (Carp) |
| Lost in Japan Series, 0–4 (Hawks) |
| Lost in Japan Series, 0–4 (Hawks) |
| Lost in League Final Stage, 0–3 (Swallows) |
| Did not qualify |
| Did not qualify |
In addition, despite the Giants having employed many foreign players over the years, many Japanese point proudly to the "pure-blooded period" of 1958–1974 when the team enjoyed continued success — 13 pennants — despite having no foreign players.
It has also long been alleged that the Giants rely on underhanded tactics to recruit the best players, involving bribes to players and amateur coaches, or using their influence on the governing council of Japanese professional baseball to pass rules that favors their recruiting efforts. This may be one explanation for the Giants' abundance of success in league play. In August 2004, Yomiuri president Tsuneo Watanabe resigned after it was revealed that the club had violated scouting rules by paying ¥2 million to pitching prospect Yasuhiro Ichiba. Ten months later, Watanabe was hired as chairman of the Yomiuri corporation.Kyodo News, "Giants ax Kiyotake after vocal Watanabe slight", The Japan Times, 19 November 2011, p. 16. In 2012, Asahi Shimbun discovered that the Giants had violated NPB rules by secretly paying pitcher Takahiko Nomaguchi while he was still an amateur playing in Japan's corporate league. Metropolis, "The Small Print: Groovin' to the Olympic Beat", #942, 13–26 April 2012, p. 4
In 2009, the Giants played the Japan national baseball team in an unofficial goodwill game before the World Baseball Classic.
Okazaki was eventually selected to remain as the next season's coach. The story made major headlines in the Japanese media.Nagata, Kazuaki, "Giants ex-GM Kiyotake tells his side of the story", The Japan Times, 26 November 2011, p. 1. On 13 December 2011, Kiyotake sued Yomiuri for ¥62 million for unfair dismissal and defamation and demanded that the company issue him a formal apology, printed in the Yomiuri Shimbun.Kyodo News, "Giants ex-boss Kiyotake sues Yomiuri", The Japan Times, 15 December 2011, p. 2. Yomiuri counter-sued Kiyotake for ¥100 million, saying that he had damaged the team's image. The suits, combined into one case, opened in Tokyo District Court on 2 February 2012.Matsutani, Minoru, "Axed Giants general manager Kiyotake, Yomiuri face off in court", The Japan Times, 3 February 2012, p. 2.
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