A couple of days before last year’s Star Wars Celebration Japan event at Makuhari Messe, there was a specially themed Star Wars Night sports event at the nearby ZOZO Marine Stadium. I never really thought about going then as I didn’t want to take another day off work or make the two-hour journey to that part of Japan knowing that I’d be doing it for three days in a row once the convention began.

However, when it was announced a few months ago that Star Wars Night would be returning in 2026 to tie in with the ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu‘ movie release I decided to make an effort to attend this time. Around the same time, Yokohama DeNA also began to promote a Star Wars Day game against Hiroshima Carp on May the 4th itself. However, I already knew I’d be in Hiroshima then!

Having booked a day off work I was just hoping and praying that the rain would hold off for a match taking place 2.5 weeks after the new film had hit cinemas. Hosting such a game in the rainy season seemed like a dodgy idea to me but thankfully it was a clear afternoon and evening despite a bit of rain that morning.

Sadly, delays on my local train line for about 25 minutes meant I arrived later than intended at the venue so was unable to get my picture taken with members of the 501st Legion group between 3:00 and 4:00 pm, a mere two hours before the game actually began!

They’d already stopped people from joining the line by the time I got there. It was a blow but it’s not as if I haven’t already had many similar photos taken over the last couple of decades. I did get to see a couple of the official cosplayers though.

Feeling a little downhearted, I wandered over to check out the special collaboration merchandise in the official store. I ended up splashing out on a souvenir towel and a couple of keyrings and got very little change from my 5,000 yen ($31) note!

Before news of this particular event broke, I was already contemplating a return to this baseball stadium in Makuhari (Chiba Prefecture) to mark the 20th anniversary of my first baseball game in Japan. I have been to that stadium a few other times for Summer Sonic music festivals but I hadn’t seen a baseball game there since June 2006.

There was a parade of Star Wars characters between 4:40 and 4:55 pm which a huge crowd gathered to see.

There were a few surprise inclusions in the lineup such as Disney mascots and the Lotte Marines cheerleaders, but they departed first leaving just the Star Wars characters.

Compared to their European counterparts, it is usually very easy to take all types of food and drink into sports venues in Japan, and indeed I can remember my friends and I took a load of beer cans into this stadium 20 years ago. This time I was wasn’t even allowed to take a shokupan bread thing in so had to quickly eat that.

Star Wars music (including some tracks from the recent film) was played throughout the evening events such as announcing the teams. The home team players were individually introduced on the screens wearing various Star Wars pilot or Jedi costumes.

There was not only a player wearing 0 but another one who had 00 as his number. The game’s gone!

With the start getting very close, the aforementioned group of Star Wars characters led by Darth Vader entered the field of play.

The ceremonial first pitch then followed not that I knew who the female involved was.

The crowd then rose to their feet for the Japanese national anthem which was quite a bizarre sight with Vader and some stormtroopers in the line-up.

Flames aplenty were then let off as the players ran onto the field.

With all the pre-match pomp and ceremony out of the way it was finally time for the sporting action to start as that is why the majority of the crowd were really there. Some kind of warning soon appeared on the jumbo screen featuring Chewbacca (Chewie) as chui is the Japanese word for caution! A good pun!

Each of the nine innings were introduced via the Japanese Star Wars saga film posters on the screen which was a nice touch.

After the second innings there was a very basic Grogu quiz on screen asking how old he is.

The options were five, fifteen and fifty with clapping after each option used to decide the answer and thankfully the latter did receive the most noise from the crowd. No doubt some people were very shocked by the answer!

Vader and co. returned to the field for the fireworks display at the end of the fifth innings.

Sadly, my vantage point wasn’t the best one but that’s the price you pay for getting the cheapest ticket (4,100 yen/$25) available!

Other short events taking place between innings were a parent and child (the kids were wearing Grogu ears) piggyback sprint and Grogu-cam on the big screen which highlighted some of the crowd who had come in costume

Brace yourself for the briefest of match details now. The home side scored a run in the opening innings before Chunichi Dragons levelled things up. Marines added a couple more in the sixth innings and that is how it ended which was lucky as I left shortly after that as it was a long way home!

No doubt there were a good number of regular fans in the stadium that had absolutely no interest in the theme attached to the game. They were probably rolling their eyes each time there was a Star Wars segment but I get that as I would feel the same if I was at a football match that had some unconnected theme. That’s all part of the modern game though and it no doubt helped to bump up the attendance figures for a weekday fixture.

Japanese English at its finest!

Final Score: Chiba Lotte Marines 3-1 Chunichi Dragons

Click here to read ‘This is the Way! On The Mandalorian & Grogu Promotional Trail in Japan’

Click here to read ‘A Busy Fortnight of Star Wars Events for the ‘May the 4th be With You’ Festivities in Osaka, Tokyo & Yokohama’

Click here to read ‘2008 Vs. 2025: How Did These 2 Star Wars Celebration Japan Conventions Differ?’

Click here to read ‘What It’s Like to Experience Watching the World Cup of Baseball Live in the Stadium!’

Click here to read ‘A Different Ball Game: My First Time to Watch Japan’s Most Popular Sport!’