Black Mist Scandal (Japanese Baseball)

In Japan, the Black Mist Scandal (黒い霧事件, kuroi kiri jiken^?) refers to a series of game fixing scandals in the Nippon Professional Baseball league between 1969 and 1971. The fallout from these scandals resulted in several star players receiving long suspensions, salary cuts, or being banned from professional play entirely; the resulting abandonment of baseball by many fans in Japan also led to the sale of such illustrious teams as the Nishitetsu Lions and Toei Flyers (now the Seibu Lions and Hokkaidō Nippon Ham Fighters).

The term "black mist" was a reference to a political scandal that had enveloped the Eisaku Satō administration in 1966–1967; "bribery was said to envelop politics like a black mist."

The scandal had multiple components, involving the yakuza and both professional baseball and professional auto racing. Baseball players and executives were implicated in fixing matches in both sports. The bulk of the revelations around the scandal happened in the fall of 1969 and the spring of 1970. Eventually, more than 15 players and coaches were implicated in game-fixing and baseball gambling, while five players were found to be involved in the race-fixing scheme. Members of nine NPB teams were implicated, with seven players coming from Nishitetsu alone. Ten NPB current and former players — including star pitchers Masaaki Ikenaga, Kentarō Ogawa, and Tsutomu Tanaka — were banned from the game for life.

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