Cricket is gaining popularity in Japan that is more well-known for the sport of baseball.
Sano, which is in the centre of Honshu, is the Japanese archipelago’s largest island. Though it is just 80 kilometres from Japan’s capital city Tokyo and is modest as Tokyo, it is sparsely populated as a result of a declining birth rate combined with large-scale migration to big cities. The authorities in Sano are now focusing on cricket to stop its depopulation and demographic and economic decline.
A half-Japanese, half-Scottish cricket enthusiast, Naoki Alex Miyaji, is the torch-bearer for transforming baseball stars into cricketers. The national government has responded by providing a generous budget to invest in cricket in Sano. Japan has made an attempt to get international recognition: it has recently qualified for the first time ever to play in the Under 19 Cricket World Cup in 2020 in South Africa. The opening of the Sano International Cricket ground in 2016, the first dedicated cricket pitch in Japan to meet international standards, has been a major feature of these efforts. The local administration also managed to introduce the sport into the regular curriculum of six local schools. The Sano Chamber of Commerce along with Sano local administration set up a cricket supporter’s club which included prominent local businesses. Currently there are more than a hundred companies that are members of the club and their aim is to find funds that are necessary to develop the sport of cricket in Sano.