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Baseball players in Japan prepare for increased free agency opportunities and the chance to join MLB earlier

In late July, Tony Clark, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, visited Japan to announce support for players in the country’s top league, Nippon Professional Baseball. Japanese ballplayers are striving to gain control of their name, image, and likeness rights, or NIL — a struggle familiar to college athletes in the United States. The NPB clubs currently hold those rights, giving them the final say over the endorsement deals players can make.

However, NIL is not the only issue the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association is tackling. They are also pushing for earlier free agency rights for NPB players, including the ability to join Major League Baseball sooner in their careers. This has led the JPBPA to prepare for a legal challenge to the league’s reserve system on antitrust grounds. Tak Yamazaki, outside counsel to the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association, mentioned that the action will be taken this year, although he did not specify an exact date.

The push for change in NPB’s player rights is significant because NPB players traditionally have not engaged in aggressive labor tactics. The JPBPA is taking steps to address this imbalance of power and has set its sights on the Japan Fair Trade Commission to challenge the reserve system, leveraging recent changes in antitrust law that give athletes more leverage.

In Japan, players have two types of free agency: domestic and international. Domestic free agency, allowing players to switch to another NPB team, typically requires seven or eight years in the league. On the other hand, international free agency, which permits players to move to leagues like MLB, requires nine years in the NPB. Players can leave earlier if their team posts them for bidding, but the JPBPA aims for a system more akin to MLB, where players become free agents after six years, regardless of origin or destination.

The efforts of the JPBPA represent a major shift in the landscape of professional baseball in Japan, where player rights have historically been limited. The involvement of the MLBPA in supporting Japanese players signifies a broader movement towards recognizing and asserting player rights globally.

The MLBPA, through its licensing business OneTeam Partners, is working on a commercial program to help NPB players reclaim their NIL rights and manage them in the future. This initiative holds promise for Japanese players to unlock greater value from their name, image, and likeness.

The cultural and structural differences between NPB and MLB present unique challenges and opportunities for player rights advocacy. While the journey towards reforming player rights in NPB may be complex, the support from organizations like the MLBPA signals a positive step towards empowering players worldwide.

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