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A team with ties to the ethnic Korean community for the first time has won Japan's famous high school baseball tournament, known as the "Koshien."
Kyoto International High School on Friday won the coveted championship, defeating Kanto Daiichi High School 2-1 on a tie-breaking run in the 10th inning. The biannual tournament, held in the spring and summer, is one of the most followed sports events in Japan.
The championship is played in the Hanshin Koshien stadium in the western Japanese city of Nishinomiya.
The victory is followed across Japan, but also in South Korea — two countries with a strong baseball culture but with a historical divide.
The result should draw attention to the improving relations between the two Asian neighbors. But it also highlights the bitter past between the two countries because of Japan's brutal colonization of the Korean peninsula, which ended in 1945 with Japan's defeat in World War II.
In a statement, a South Korean residents organization said the victory “brought together the hearts of all ethnic Korean residents in Japan as one and served as a bridge between South Korea and Japan.”
The statement from Mindan, or the Korean Residents Union in Japan, pointed out that the game had also received the attention of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The Kyoto International High School was originally set up in 1947 for Japan's Korean population, many of whom were displaced to Japan as forced labor during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule.
The school is now recognized by education authorities in both Japan and South Korea. About one-quarter of the students have Korean roots.
Kyoto International also reached the semifinals of the tournament in 2021.
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Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
