How to Watch Professional Japanese Baseball (NPB) on TV or Streaming from Overseas

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This article was updated in March 2025

Several times a year we get asked a question that should have a readily-available answer: “Where/How can I watch NPB from overseas?”

Here are your best options to watch Nippon Professional Baseball from abroad, in no particular order of accessibility or cost. It should be noted that not every option will give you access to Japan Series games, as they are sponsored by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and are generally not streamed.

Pacific League TV

For the reasonable price of ¥1,595 (about $11) per month, you can watch all Pacific League (Fighters, Eagles, Marines, Lions, Buffaloes, Hawks) regular-season games, plus farm games from many of those teams and more, plus the PL Climax Series. Also included are home interleague games for the Giants and Tigers. Note that as of the 2023 season, this service is no longer available from Europe. The PLTV English YouTube channel will also simulcast once a month.

Toratele

For just ¥660 per month, you get access to all Hanshin Tigers home games, home farm games, plus road games against the Yomiuri Giants. (I have a guide for signing up on my Tigers site.) Wondering who the Hanshin Tigers are?

Giants Live Stream

For ¥1,650 per month, you can view all Yomiuri Giants home games, plus road games against the Hanshin Tigers and Yokohama DeNA Baystars.

Rising Sun TV

One of our readers clued us in to this option. It has a range of options that range from $150 (mini-plan) to $219 (deluxe plan) per year. It gives you a great range of Japanese TV channels – basically, you can watch Japanese TV of all genres, all day and night. The mini-plan may not get you every game you hope for, but the basic plan ($180 for the year) should. It includes all four J-Sports cable channels, which usually show a few games every day. It is possible to pay by the day or month as well (if you want to just watch the playoffs, for example), but the best value comes from subscribing for the entire year. It is also of note that this service is not available in Japan.

For The Fans

According to NHK, “For The Fans sports channel will broadcast more than 200 official Pacific League games between August and November.” Games are on digital channels that carry For the Fans: Pluto, Xumo, Samsung Smart TV, ROKU, & Zingo TV but not on their website. *Hat-tip to Keith Brock for this!

WatchDingoTV

The For The Fans (FTF) Sports network is hosted here, which broadcasts select Pacific League series, occasionally featuring English commentary from Jonny Wincott, Taylor Stolworthy, and Jon Kociban. Games air live and re-air at 2 PM EST. Available at WatchDingo.com or as a mobile app.

TVer

Many Japanese television networks, which broadcast NPB games on some days, are available for free here, but a VPN is required (please use at your own discretion).

NicoNico

Select Yokohama DeNA BayStars games are streamed for free here, but a VPN is required (please use at your own discretion).

Directv.com

Another reader kindly informed us that Pacific League games are played on Channel 623 on Directv. As far as we can see, the cost for their “Ultimate” package (which includes various sports, news and movies) is $94.99 per month (plus tax) and gives you over 120 channels, 20 hours of recording/archive space, and the possibility of adding on a whole lot of other content at additional costs.

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There are probably a lot of people in our community who know of other ways to get access to NPB games, so feel free to share some with us in the comments! We recommend joining the NPB Discord channel, where there are many English-speaking fans to connect with and help you out with viewing options. Of course, there are also all sorts of “illegal” livestreams of games all over the internet, but we don’t exactly want to support what they are doing…

Hope this helps you find the baseball action that you want so badly to see!

For more Japanese baseball, check out JapanBall’s Articles and Features section.