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Soft Power Series: Across the Diamond: Growing U.S.-Japan Baseball in the 21st Century
August 18, 2026 @ 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Speaker: Mr. James Small, former President, World Baseball Classic at Major League Baseball (MLB); President and Founder, Ascendant Sports & Entertainment
On August 18, Sasakawa USA hosted a Soft Power Series event featuring Mr. James Small, former president, World Baseball Classic at Major League Baseball (MLB) and president and founder, Ascendant Sports & Entertainment, titled “Across the Diamond: Growing U.S.-Japan Baseball in the 21st Century.”
Drawing on his expertise and experience from his extensive career with MLB, including 16 years in Tokyo leading the league’s Asia-Pacific office, Mr. Small outlined the evolution of U.S.-Japan baseball and its impact on the bilateral relationship. Starting with the introduction of baseball to Japan in the Meiji period, Mr. Small highlighted major events and figures in U.S.-Japan baseball history, including players such as Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, and Shohei Ohtani that have “changed the game” in the last thirty years. A key theme of his presentation was how baseball enabled the U.S. and Japan to build and reinforce people-to-people, cultural, and economic ties even at times where other areas of the bilateral relationship were limited.
A Q&A discussion with the audience moderated by Mr. John Seymour, senior program officer at Sasakawa USA, followed Mr. Small’s presentation. Topics of the discussion included the role of sport in disaster recovery, with Mr. Small discussing work MLB did in Tohoku following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and the areas within diplomacy where sports can make the most impact.
Photo (left to right): Mr. James Small and Mr. John Seymour
