Japan

Japan is the World Baseball Classic's flagship program, a national team backed by an obsessively devoted fan base and the sport's second-biggest professional league in NPB. Known as "Samurai Japan," the team plays with precision, discipline, and relentless fundamentals that have made it the tournament's most successful nation by a wide margin. Japan's rosters blend elite NPB stars with MLB standouts, creating a lineup capable of both dominant pitching and clutch power. It's the standard-bearer of the Classic, the team every other nation measures itself against.

The Baseball Federation of Japan was formed in 1990 through the merger of the country's amateur governing bodies, though organized Japanese baseball dates back over a century, anchored by Nippon Professional Baseball. Japan has won the World Baseball Classic a tournament-best three times, in 2006, 2009, and most recently 2023, when a roster led by Shohei Ohtani capped a perfect run by beating the United States in the final. Ohtani's title-clinching strikeout of Mike Trout became one of the most iconic moments in the sport's international history. Samurai Japan's sustained excellence across nearly two decades of the Classic has cemented it as the tournament's defining dynasty.