are fixated on Osaka<\/a>, one of just three prefectures that has expressed interest in allowing a casino to be built.\u00a0Reuters <\/i>said this week that Osaka’s tourism industry grew five-fold between 2012 and 2017.<\/p>\n“Compared to Tokyo, Osaka is positioned for longer and more sustainable growth in development and tourism because of things like the integrated resort,” CBRE Osaka Director of Research Takeshi Yamaguchi explained.<\/p>\n
Japan Baseball<\/b><\/h2>\n
Baseball has for many years been the most popular sport in Japan. But in recent years, rigorous baseball programs ran by schools has led to many youngsters opting to forgo participation.<\/p>\n
Still, Japan’s Central Research Services says baseball remains the most popular sport, with 48.1 percent of respondents naming it their favorite. Shohei Ohtani, who was poached away from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters by MLB’s Los Angeles Angels in 2017, remains the most popular athlete in Japan.<\/p>\n
No player from Japan enjoyed more MLB success than Ichiro Suzuki, who amassed 3,089 hits on a .311 career batting average.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen he stops playing the game for at least five years, he’ll almost certainly be a first-ballot inductee into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. There are currently no Japanese-born players in Cooperstown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MGM Resorts will have the spotlight in Japan later this month, as the Las Vegas-based casino operator is the title sponsor for Major League Baseball’s 2019 opening series being played in Tokyo. The Seattle Mariners and Oakland A’s will officially get the MLB season underway on March 20. They’ll play again the following day in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":100296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,16],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
MGM Resorts Gets Japan Spotlight With MLB Season Openers in Tokyo<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n