I recently attended a baseball game at Tokyo Dome between the Rakuten Eagles and another team. It was an incredible experience, even though I’m not a regular baseball watcher. Despite that, I could feel the excitement and understand the rules. What stood out to me was the atmosphere in the stadium. One whole section was filled with Rakuten Eagles supporters, while another section was dedicated to the opposing team. In the center, there was a person holding a massive flag while someone played the drums. They would periodically stand up and sing songs together in perfect harmony. It was amazing to see everyone also clapping in sync. I’m curious, does anyone know about what kind of group are those people from and what kind of songs do they sing?
In the place where I come from, this kind of atmosphere is rare, especially in a sports stadium where people usually just exchange insults.
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The ouendan (応援団) are the supporter groups who organize the bands and the cheering.
In the case of NPB the groups are formally approved by the league/club, which is why they all have passes and special sections and permission to wave the giant flags and use instruments. [Here’s the homepage of the Hanshin Tigers supporter group](https://tigers-ouendan.info/) as an example; other clubs have similar. They have a [song committee](https://tigers-hm.info/) that manages the chants/songs for each player.
The fans all know the songs and the hand signals and know how to follow along; that’s something they’ve grown up with and learned. It’s all engrained tradition, very similar to the student sections at NCAA basketball/football games.
In soccer (the J. League) it’s a little less structured but basically resembles European or South American active support – there’s a core group (sometimes multiple) that comes up with chants and brings the drums/banners to each game, fans also bring their own flags/banners and follow the call leaders when it comes to whatever song is being sung at the time.
It’s called the ouendan, or the “official supporters”. They’re hardcore fans who make up the fan club. They come up with cheer songs for every player and chant them when that player is at bat.
I don’t know if this is the case with every team, but at the Yokohama Baystars stadium, they have kiosks giving out pocket cards/sheets with the lyrics to each players’ song
It’s kinda cool, but they have the same chants and songs at every damn game. If I was a player I’d get sick of it.
Would be cool to see some spontaneous cheering or banter or creativity like you see in UK football chants.