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Japan's Starry Gems of the Diamond
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Still, branding outside of Japanese stars is a challenge.
Some of the advertisers who buy signs in American ballparks count on Japanese fans not knowing very much about U.S. baseball rivalries or U.S. geography.
"I don't think the Japanese audience even knows where the games are being played," said Hiroshi Kado, an advertising executive at Dandy House, a Tokyo-based men's salon chain that sells facial hair removal and weight-loss massages.
Dandy House has figured out how to ride the popularity of the Big Three on the cheap. It buys most of its ads in small-market stadiums in the states.
Instead of spending several hundred thousand dollars to put a sign in Yankee Stadium, it buys stadium ads in small-market American League towns such as Tampa and Kansas City, which cost $20,000 to $30,000.
If the ads are the rotating kind that appear behind home plate only for a couple of innings a game, Dandy House guesses when Ichiro or Matsui might come up to bat (based on their place in the lineup) and buys those innings.
It also tries to calculate what cut-rate stadium pitcher Matsuzaka might start in.
It guessed right last year in Matsuzaka's first MLB start -- Kansas City.
"We were in TV news footage of Matsuzaka's first pitch," Kado said.
Before the chain began its ad campaign in 2003, the Japanese public regarded the company's weight-loss-via-massage business as "slightly phony," Kado said. "But branding our image with Major League Baseball has helped to bring our customers to us with ease."
At Tokyo Dome on Tuesday night, fans seemed to agree that an ad in an American stadium could give any product class.
"Even if it doesn't lead to a purchase, it will definitely improve a company's image," said Daisuke Hamada, 39, a magazine editor with seats behind home plate. "Personally, I think those companies are really cool. The ads enhance their standing in society."
Special correspondent Akiko Yamamoto contributed to this report.
