Japanese Attendance Figures
For those interested in looking at the attendance figures for baseball in Japan you can go here: http://www.npbtracker.com/2008/11/2008-npb-attendance-numbers/#content
In summary, Hanshin is still the most popular team, even though they saw a decline in attendance. The Hanshin Tigers drew a little less than 3 million. Last year they drew over 3 million, but they did play nine games in the smaller Kyocera Dome. Koshien Stadium is being refurbished for next year, so it will be interesting to see how that impacts the attendance figures.
Yokahama had the biggest drop in attendance, but that could have been because of their last place finish. The biggest increase was seen by Seibu and Hiroshima. Seibu won their division and play in a large park, so they should draw more while Hiroshima will be playing in a new park next year, so people may have visited the Civic Stadium to say goodbye.
All teams drew over 1 million, while the Hanshin Tigers, Yomiuri Giants, Chunichi Dragons and the Softbank Hawks were the four teams that drew over 2 million. Japan has a season schedule of 144 games.