世論 What Japan Thinks

With both the 2007 Japan Professional Baseball and the 2007 US Major League Baseball seasons underway, and with wall-to-wall Japanese television coverage of the exploits of the local players in the Major League, goo Research, in conjuction with the Mainichi Shimbun, performed a survey that looked at reformation of the professional baseball draft system in Japan. This article contains just the highlights of the fuller survey that they conducted.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of March, members of goo Research’s online monitor group were randomly selected and 1,089 of them successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire.

As well as the US careers of Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and Daisuke Matsuzaka, the other big baseball-related topics are plans to reduce the length of time before becoming eligible for Free Agency from the current nine years, and to reform the draft system to prevent, or at least reduce, problems occuring from cases such as amateurs receiving dodgy handouts from the Seibu Lions.

Research results

Q1: Which one of the following three Japanese Major League players is your favourite? (Sample size=1,089)

Ichiro Suzuki (Ichiro)	67%
Hideki Matsui (Godzilla)	28%
Daisuke Matsuzaka (Dice-K)	5%

Q2: Do you think reform of the draft system will stop illegal activity? (Sample size=1,089)

Think it will stop	18%
Don’t think it will stop	81%

Q3: After how many years do you think a player should be allowed to become a Free Agent? (Sample size=1,089)

Four or less years	21%
Five years	33%
Six years	10%
Seven years	7%
Eight years	2%
The current system is fine	26%