A Multicultural Team Dreams of Victory - Where We Call Home
We meet two men who moved to Saga Prefecture. Indonesian Rizki Ramadhan plays for a multicultural baseball team in a pro-indie league, and Nepalese Kanchha Lama grows a variety of produce in Karatsu.
Rizki Ramadhan is a pro baseball player from Indonesia.
Indonesians living in Saga cheer for the Saga Asia Dreams.
Rizki enjoys a relaxing open-air footbath with his teammates.
Kanchha Lama is a farmer from Nepal.
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Tsuyoshi Shinjo showed up for his first news conference as Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters manager in November 2021 wearing sunglasses, a gaudy red suit and a white shirt with an impossibly large popped collar. He said he wanted to be called 'Big Boss' instead of 'manager,' a stance he later doubled down on by changing his registered name in NPB to 'BIGBOSS,' which he wore on his uniform. That was the beginning of a yearlong spectacle. After arriving on a hovercraft before the team's home opener in 2022, Shinjo remained the center of attention for most of the season. He preened, the fans fawned and the cameras rolled. If his goal was to take the spotlight and pressure off his mostly young players, then it worked. Shinjo was the star, and it almost did not matter that the team finished in last place. But Shinjo gave a lot of players valuable experience, even shoving some out of their comfort zones. While the Fighters finished last again in 2023, they at least looked like they were building something. Shinjo has dialed back his antics lately, and perhaps with good reason — because it looks like the players are ready to take center stage. After making a playoff run last season, the Fighters look like a contender again early in 2025. Nippon Ham is 25-19-2 through 46 games, the best record in the Pacific League, and is tied with the Hanshin Tigers for the highest winning percentage (.588) in NPB. Even though the calendar has not reached June, over 30% of the season is in the books. So while it is still too early to talk about winning the pennant, there have been enough games played to say the Fighters look like the real deal. Shinjo did not inherit a winning club in 2022. The team had finished second from the bottom in the Pa League the previous three seasons under Hideki Kuriyama and had not won the pennant since Shohei Ohtani led it there in 2016. Shinjo had a lot of young players in Year 1. There were also questions about his lack of experience — he had never managed or coached previously — and how seriously the flamboyant personality would take the job. The Fighters, however, made incremental gains during a pair of last-place finishes, and the seeds sprouted last season are bearing fruit this year. The club's pitchers have performed very well in 2025. Haruki Hosono provided the latest example with seven innings of one-run ball against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in a 1-1 tie on Sunday afternoon. Nippon Ham leads the PL with a 2.33 team ERA, and its starters are the class of NPB so far with a 2.18 mark. The Fighters have five pitchers with at least six starts and none have an ERA over 3.00 — although three have thrown fewer than 50 innings. Ace Hiromi Ito, meanwhile, has a 2.36 ERA over 61 innings (the second-most frames in the league). 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