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

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This article was updated in July 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?” So here are your best options to watch Nippon Professional Baseball from abroad, in no particular order of accessibility or cost. Note 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 ¥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. PL postseason games are also included (except the Japan Series). Giants and Tigers home interleague games are geoblocked outside Japan. Note that as of the 2023 season, this service is no longer available from Europe. For those in Latin America, check out the 1Baseball Network. The PLTV English YouTube channel will also simulcast once a month.

For The Fans / WatchDingoTV

Select Pacific League series are on digital channels that carry For the Fans: Pluto, Xumo, Samsung Smart TV, ROKU, Zingo TV (and Plex for Canada). It’s also hosted on WatchDingo.com and their mobile app. There will occasionally be English commentary from Jonny Wincott, Taylor Stolworthy, and Jon Kociban. Games air live and re-air at 2 PM EST. Hat-tip to Keith Brock for this!

Toratele

For ¥660 (about $4.50) per month, you get access to all Hanshin Tigers home games, home farm games, plus road games against the Yomiuri Giants. Trevor made a guide for signing up on Hanshin Tigers English News.

Giants Live Stream

For ¥1,650 (about $11) 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.

TVer

Many Japanese television networks are available for free here, which means NPB, including some Japan Series games, is occasionally available. However, 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).

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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.