Osaka, Sept 17: Fans in Osaka, Japan took to the streets to celebrate a rare league title for their basball team the Hanshin Tigers. The bridge above the Dotonbori waterway that winds through Japan's second largest city was packed as the home team won their first championship in nearly 20 years. Ignoring health warnings and defying police, 5,300 fans -- according to police records -- plunged into a dirty local river after victory in the six-team Central League. Tigers-mania has its epicentre in Kansai, as western Japan is known but the success of the underdogs has taken the entire country by a storm, prompting comments from Cabinet Ministers, Japan's central bank chief and even the Prime Minister.

The Tigers have long been overshadowed by Tokyo's Yomiuri Giants, a wealthy team that has lured top players with huge salaries.


The winner of the Central League title plays the winner of Japan's other professional circuit, the Pacific League, in Japan's version of U.S. baseball's World Series.


Many ordinary Japanese struggling to cope with a decade-long economic slump identify with the underdog Tigers. The team has also become an anti-establishment symbol in a country where big companies, one long-time ruling party and elite government officials call most of the shots.


The victory could spur spending and give the slowly recovering economy a lift, a reason even Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is smiling, even if economists say such hopes are overdone.

"I don't know the relation between the victory of Hanshin Tigers and the recovery of economy, but having seen their cheerful victory, I'd like to hope the symptom of brightness (of economy) could be the real one," Koizumi said on Tuesday.


Baseball, Japan's favourite sport, has been played in the country since 1873 and has been played professionally since the 1920s. Even during World War Two just one professional baseball season, 1945, was abandoned and the league was back up and running within nine months of the start of the U.S.- led occupation after the war.


Department stores nationwide began special sales on Tuesday (September 16) to celebrate the victory of Hanshin Tigers with queues several thousand people lining up.


Bureau Report