In Japan, the path to baseball stardom is clear for boys. For girls, however, the situation is very different: the sport offers them only limited opportunities for a professional career and few can make a living from playing baseball alone.
But this hasn’t stopped a new wave of Japanese girls and young women from making their way and challenging structural barriers. Their push as two-way players shows that the sport is evolving, even if the opportunities enjoyed by their male counterparts are still a long way off.
Turning point for Japanese women’s football
Women’s baseball in Japan is at a turning point after the Japan Women’s Baseball League, the country’s only professional women’s league, folded in 2021 after 12 years. A year later, the storied Yomiuri Giants, which have 22 Japan Series titles, founded a women’s team, signaling a renewed attempt to build a sustainable future for female baseball players.
In the absence of a professional league, Japan’s top female players compete in an organized amateur system run by the Women’s Baseball Federation of Japan that includes schools, clubs and corporate teams. The NPB’s three women’s teams are divided regionally: The Giants and Seibu Lions play in the Venus League in the Kanto region, while the Hanshin Tigers compete in the Kansai-based Lucky League.
Japanese women still can’t earn a full salary as players, but some new opportunities surrounding the sport hint at what a professional path could look like in the future.
Rare opportunity to get started with Giants
For example, Ayuri Shimano found one of those rare entry points with the Tokyo-based Giants. The 21-year-old plays as a pitcher and hitter for the women’s team and was drafted last month by the Los Angeles team in the US Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL), which is scheduled to begin play in 2026.
Shimano was already a two-way player in elementary school, like many of the young players in Japan, and envisioned a future in the NPB. She played with boys until middle school before focusing almost exclusively on pitching. She realized that an NPB career was not a realistic option for girls.
In high school, she again focused on hitting and developing as a two-way player. This came rather gradually and was influenced on the one hand by Ohtani’s example from his time with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and by her own desire to contribute something to the team in an offensive role.
She never consciously decided to become a two-way player, but rather wanted to contribute something to her own game. Above all, she sees advantages in it; above all, it helps her to stay physically balanced.
After high school, Shimano considered going to college and joining a men’s team. However, she changed her mind when the Giants offered her a contract, giving her the opportunity to stay in baseball while earning money as a coach at the club’s youth academy. There she works with children from preschool through sixth grade, many of whom are beginners.
In the USA, travel costs are covered and full training support is provided. It is still unclear whether she can continue to play her dual role there.
Baseball player wants to be a role model for future generations
As her popularity has grown, so has attention for her two-way capabilities. In the media, Shimano is often referred to as “the female Shohei Ohtani”. She sees the comparison as both an honor and an embarrassment: “Comparing myself to him is almost disrespectful, he’s the best of the best,” she joked. “My technique is nowhere near his level so I wouldn’t say I’m trying to copy him, but he’s a big inspiration to me as a player.”
Growing up, Shimano wished at times that she was a boy, especially when she saw her male teammates following clearly defined paths to Koshien or the NPB, some becoming professionals and earning high salaries. Over time, however, she realized that playing baseball as a girl also had an advantage: the opportunity to follow an untrodden path.
She knows she has fewer opportunities than her male colleagues, but that only reinforces her sense of purpose.
Shimano also drew inspiration from athletes like Naomi Osaka and Rui Hachimura, whose influence transcended sports. She set herself big goals to become a role model for baseball-loving girls and to give the next generation something that she herself was missing.
