Photo/Illutration Female placard bearers and members of high school baseball teams rehearse the ceremonies for the National High School Baseball Championship at Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture in August 2019. (Shoko Mifune)

Changing a tradition that dates back 74 years, male students will be allowed to serve as placard bearers at this summer's National High School Baseball Championship.

The Japan High School Baseball Federation and The Asahi Shimbun announced on June 12 that they will allow both sexes to serve in the role. 

Placard bearers lead out players at the opening and closing ceremonies.

The Japan High School Baseball Federation and The Asahi Shimbun are organizers of the prestigious championship, which is held at Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture every year.

“We hope we will continue to contribute to creating the new form of the championship that reflects social changes,” said Mitsunobu Yui, principal of Nishinomiya Municipal High School.

Since the 31st championship in 1949, female students at the school have performed the role of placard bearers. The school is located in Hyogo Prefecture’s Nishinomiya, as is Hanshin Koshien Stadium.

Organizers changed the policy taking into consideration the social trend of giving equal opportunities to everyone regardless of their gender.

From this summer’s championship, which will be the 105th, both male and female students at the high school can apply to be placard bearers.

A total of 129 placard bearers will be chosen from the school’s first- or second-year students for this summer’s championship.

Students can apply to serve as placard bearers from late June to early July. The decision on the selections will be made on July 20.

Once every five years, the championship is held as a “commemoration” championship.

This summer’s championship is a commemoration championship, meaning flags from schools that have won in the past will be raised during the march at the opening ceremony.

Recently, while all students competing in the championship have been males, there have been moves to allow female students to participate as well. 

For example, since last summer’s championship, female members of high school baseball teams have been allowed to serve as “ball people,” whose role includes retrieving foul balls.

In addition, in the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament in March, female members of participating baseball teams became the first to hit fungoes or hand balls to those hitting them during pregame fielding practice. 

They were students from Joto High School in Tokushima Prefecture and Hikari High School in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

For the invitational competition, students at participating high schools have acted as placard bearers at opening and closing ceremonies with some of them having been male.

(This article was written by Takeshi Okada and Kazuhiko Matsunaga.)

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