The calendar
Preseason games are listed from February 21 to March 22. Both leagues open the regular season on March 27.
Japan
NPB
Nippon Professional Baseball: a Central League, a Pacific League, and a Nippon Series.
History · Teams · Playoffs · Nippon Series · Contact
A short history
NPB’s English site lists 12 clubs, six in the Central League and six in the Pacific League.
The same site’s abbreviations page names two farm leagues, the Eastern League and the Western League.
Current teams
12 clubs from the published list. Names and letters are the ones on NPB’s English club list.
Central League
- Hanshin TigersT
- YOKOHAMA DeNA BAYSTARSDB
- Yomiuri GiantsG
- Chunichi DragonsD
- Hiroshima Toyo CarpC
- Tokyo Yakult SwallowsS
Pacific League
- Fukuoka SoftBank HawksH
- Hokkaido Nippon-Ham FightersF
- ORIX BuffaloesB
- Tohoku Rakuten Golden EaglesE
- Saitama Seibu LionsL
- Chiba Lotte MarinesM
Playoffs
The published calendar also lists an interleague stretch from May 26 to June 14, and two All-Star games, July 28 at Tokyo Dome and July 29 in Toyama.
This desk does not carry a scoreboard for the league.
Nippon Series
The English site’s calendar lists a Nippon Series of seven games, from October 24 through November 1. It does not say on that page how a club reaches the series.
Contact
League site
Nippon Professional Baseball
npb.jp/eng