South Korea's national baseball team poses for a photo with Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young and Korea Baseball Organization Commissioner Heo Goo-yeon after winning the gold medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games baseball final at Toyohashi Municipal Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday. [Yonhap]
South Korea's national baseball team poses for a photo with Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young and Korea Baseball Organization Commissioner Heo Goo-yeon after winning the gold medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games baseball final at Toyohashi Municipal Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday. [Yonhap]

South Korea's national baseball team defeated Japan's amateur squad 3-1 to claim a fifth consecutive gold medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. Japanese media, while reporting the loss, emphasized that their country's team — made up entirely of non-professional players — had held its own against a South Korea side built around professionals.

The team, led by Manager Ryu Ji-hyun, beat Japan 3-1 in the final on Sunday at Toyohashi Municipal Stadium in Aichi Prefecture. The victory extended South Korea's gold-medal streak to five consecutive Asian Games, dating back to the 2010 Guangzhou Games.

Japan fielded a 24-man roster drawn entirely from corporate amateur baseball teams, while South Korea's squad was composed of professional players, including veterans of the World Baseball Classic.

Japanese corporate baseball players are classified as amateurs — they are employees of companies and receive no pay for playing. The backbone of Japan's squad came from corporate teams including Oji Paper, Toyota Motor and NTT East.

Japan's TBS News said the team "fell short of claiming Asia's top prize for the first time in 32 years since the 1994 Hiroshima Games, which were also held in Japan, but fought hard on home soil all the way to the final, winning five straight games from the opening round."

The Mainichi Shimbun described the final as a rain-soaked clash of national pride, noting that South Korea — whose players stand to receive military service benefits for winning — was intensely focused on the championship match, and that Japan ultimately could not hold them off.

Japan's baseball team acknowledges the crowd from the podium after winning the silver medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games baseball final at Toyohashi Municipal Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday. [Yonhap]
Japan's baseball team acknowledges the crowd from the podium after winning the silver medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games baseball final at Toyohashi Municipal Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday. [Yonhap]

The Japanese media's focus on their team's strong showing stemmed in large part from the result of the super round opener on Friday. Japan won 5-0 that day, with Mukoyama Motoki of NTT East delivering the first run with an RBI double, followed by run-scoring hits from Yano Koya of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries East and Soeda Masami of Nippon Express.

The Daily Sports, a Japanese sports newspaper, called it "a complete victory by an amateur side over a professional-heavy South Korea packed with WBC veterans." It was South Korea's first loss to Japan at the Asian Games in 20 years, since the 2006 Doha Games.

The Digest said that while South Korea avenged the loss in the final to claim gold, questions remain even after the five-peat. Coco-Kara Next described the gold medal as a hard-won result achieved only after South Korea struggled throughout the tournament against the formidable wall of Japanese baseball.


dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com