The Samurai Sword Cuts Both Ways

Abstract

This article illustrates how media representations of Suzuki Ichiro, a professional baseball player, have reproduced discourses of nationhood in Japan and the US, demonstrating how nationalism and globalization may articulate in sport. Some 365 articles that mentioned Ichiro, published in the Seattle Times (151), Mainichi Daily Newspaper (77), and Sports Nippon (137) were analyzed. These articles describe Ichiro’s inaugural season (2001-02) as the first Japanese position player in Major League Baseball. Transnationalism provides an important framework for understanding the specific space between the nation and the ‘other.’ In this instance, this space spans the US and Japan, US and Japanese baseball, and even US and Japanese media. Although Ichiro’s move from Japanese baseball to Major League Baseball is evidence of the globalization of sport, Ichiro is also a vehicle through which US and Japanese nationalism can be celebrated. The framework of transnationalism permits an understanding of the interplay between US and Japanese nation-building discourses, as well as providing a specific political and historical context.