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Private company

Central League

Nippon Professional Baseball league

The Central League (セントラル・リーグ, Sentoraru Rīgu) or Ce League (セ・リーグ, Se Rīgu), also known as the JERA Central League (JERAセ・リーグ, JERA Se Rīgu) for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1949Founded1

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Photo: User Stevec240 on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

The Central League (セントラル・リーグ, Sentoraru Rīgu) or Ce League (セ・リーグ, Se Rīgu), also known as the JERA Central League (JERAセ・リーグ, JERA Se Rīgu) for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country. Unlike the Pacific League, designated hitters are not used during Central League home games. The Central League has voted to adopt the designated hitter beginning in 2027.2

Corporate structure

Central League sits at the top of its group. 1 entity, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Central League
    • Eastern League Owned · Japan

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What Central League reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

  • Eastern League

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.1

The story

The Central League was founded in 1949 with eight teams: four holdovers from the previous Japanese Baseball League — the Chunichi Dragons, the Hanshin Tigers, the Yomiuri Giants, and the Shochiku Robins (formerly the Taiyō Robins) — and four new teams — the Hiroshima Carp, the Kokutetsu Swallows, the Nishi Nippon Pirates, and the Taiyō Whales.

The Nishi Nippon Pirates existed for one season — they placed sixth in 1950, and the following season merged with the also Fukuoka-based Nishitetsu Clippers (a member of the Pacific League) to form the Nishitetsu Lions, who joined the Pacific League. This brought the number of Central League teams down to an ungainly arrangement of seven.

Ryuji Suzuki became president of the Central League in 1952.

In 1952, it was decided that any team ending the season with a winning percentage below.300 would be disbanded or merged with other teams. The Shochiku Robins fell into this category, and were merged with the Taiyō Whales to become the Taiyō Shochiku Robins in January 1953. This enabled the Central League to shrink to an even number of six teams.

Ryuji Suzuki retired as CL president in 1984 after 33 years at the post.

In 2007, a new Climax Series was introduced. This playoff series was inspired by the stepladder playoff used in the Pacific League introduced in 2004 for the top three teams of the league to determine which one progressed to the Japan Series. Under the previous system, there was no post-season playoff and the winner of the pennant automatically qualified for the Japan Series.

From Wikipedia’s article on Central League, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Subsidiaries and ownership

Also owns

  • Eastern League

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1949Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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