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The baseball players of Kyoto International High School, a Korean school in Japan, are celebrating after their comeback victory in the semifinals of the National High School Baseball Championship (Koshien) held at Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture on the 21st.

3441 teams challenge Tomorrow’s finals “East Sea” Korean school song sung with subtitles and broadcast live across Japan Mindan “A joyful event that gave courage to Koreans in Japan”

Kyoto International High School, a Korean school in Japan, has advanced to the long-awaited finals of the 106th Japan National High School Baseball Championship (Koshien). This is their best performance to date, surpassing their advance to the semifinals in 2021.

Kyoto International High School, which founded its baseball club in 1999, will face East Tokyo representative Kanto Daiichi High School in the finals on the 23rd and attempt to become the first Korean high school to win the Koshien championship. Kyoto International High School

defeated Aomori Yamada High School, representing Aomori Prefecture, 3-2 in the Koshien semifinals held at Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture on the 21st, advancing to the finals.

After the victory, the Kyoto International High School players gathered at home plate and sang the school song in Korean, “Across the East Sea, the land of Yamato is the sacred dreamland of our ancestors.” The scene of singing the school song was broadcast live nationwide on NHK and other channels with Korean lyrics subtitles. This is the fifth time that Kyoto International High School has sung the school song after a victory in this tournament.

After the game, Kyoto International High School Principal Baek Seung-hwan said, “I am so happy that we have advanced to the finals that we have dreamed of, and I am proud of (the students),” and “I am happy that we were able to inspire our compatriots in Japan.” The

Korean community in Japan is excited about Kyoto International High School’s consecutive victories. Officials from the Central Headquarters of the Korean Residents Union in Japan gathered with mini Taegeukgi flags and cheered them on. Kim Lee-joong, the head of the Central Headquarters of the Korean Residents Union, said, “This great achievement has given courage to our compatriots all over Japan,” and “I will go to Koshien Stadium in person for the finals and cheer with our compatriots from the cheering section.”

In Japan, where high school baseball is more popular than professional baseball, Kyoto International High School's advance to the finals is considered a miracle rather than an upset. This year, 3,441 teams from all over Japan competed in the regional preliminaries for Koshien, and 49 teams advanced to the main tournament. Since losing even once in the preliminaries means immediate elimination, the Koshien main tournament itself is called the "dream stage." Each region's prestigious baseball schools are filled with top-notch high school players. Aomoriyama High School, which met in the semifinals that day, had an ace pitcher who boasted a speed of 152 km/h on the mound. On the other hand, Kyoto International High School has only 160 students and practices on a half-sized field that is half the size of a regular baseball field. They even have a shortage of baseballs, so when a thread bursts, they wrap it up with tape and use it until the ball is crushed. The school auditorium where the opening ceremony for this tournament was held had an old air conditioner that broke, so the players had to cool down with a fan. There are four Korean schools in Japan: one in Tokyo, two in Osaka, and one in Kyoto. Tokyo and Osaka are popular places for Koreans who have recently immigrated, including diplomats and corporate employees, so they are so popular that you have to go through a lottery to get into the schools. However, Kyoto has become more assimilated into Japanese society as the third and fourth generations of Koreans in Japan have grown, and there are few new Koreans immigrating to the city due to its urban nature. The school, which had been struggling financially, was reorganized from Kyoto Korean School to Kyoto International Middle and High School in 2003 with the approval of the Japanese government. Although 90% of the students are Japanese, it is run by Mindan and receives support from both the Korean and Japanese governments. The chairman and principal are also Korean. They teach Korean language, offer school trips to Korea, and also run a K-pop dance club.



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