Although there are many professional Japanese baseball players, Hideki Matsui has certainly made baseball more than just an American sport. One sentence in a recent New York Times article caught our “cultural” eyes:

“In a oft-repeated story, a young Matsui switched to left-handed pitching and hitting so that youths playing against him would have more of a chance.”

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In any adversarial game, people from individualistic cultures (e.g. Australia or US) would find this confusing. In collectivist or group-oriented cultures, as in Japan, the well-being of the group is highly important. Another related example is in the concept of giving and saving “face,” or the idea that one’s reputation is built upon the actions of the larger group. For Matsui, he was exhibiting his cultural preference to help his peers succeed rather than stand out as an extremely unique and talented player.

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