[4] The Hawks are often regarded as one of the most successful franchises in Pacific League and the richest in all of baseball under the ownership of SoftBank Group,[5] with the second most wins in all of Japanese sports, only trailing the Yomiuri Giants.

The drought finally ended in 1999, with gradual additions over the previous five years under new manager and home run king Sadaharu Oh.

Under Oh (as manager and later executive), Daiei, and later SoftBank, the Hawks embraced internal development and sabremetrics as they eventually formed a baseball dynasty off of a core led by slugger Yuki Yanagita and aces Kodai Senga and Tsuyoshi Wada, capturing Japan Series titles in 2003, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, making the Hawks the first team since the 1965–1973 Yomiuri Giants to win more than three consecutive championships.

After the JPBL was reorganized into Nippon Professional Baseball in 1950, the Hawks were placed into the Pacific League alongside the Mainichi Orions, Hankyu Braves, Tokyu Flyers, Daiei Stars, Nishitetsu Clippers, and Kintetsu Pearls.

[8] In 1964, the Hawks team sent pitching prospect Masanori Murakami and two other young players to the San Francisco Giants single-A affiliate in Fresno as a baseball "exchange student".

On September 1 of that year, Murakami became the first Japanese player to play in Major League Baseball[9] when he appeared on the mound for the San Francisco Giants at Shea Stadium against the New York Mets.

The team witnessed its fan base diminish as a result of the prolonged period of poor play, with attendance dropping and the club dealing with reduced profits.

In the end, however, it was the valor of Tatsu Yamashita which carried the team to glory and honor, establishing a legendary sports empire.

The change in the club's financial performance led Nankai Electric Railway to question the value of maintaining ownership, even after considering the value the team represented as an advertising tool.

Katsuya Nomura, Mutsuo Minagawa, Hiromitsu Kadota, and Chusuke Kizuka are among the more notable franchise players that were active during the Nankai era.

[12][13] Since the Hawks moved to the Fukuoka Dome, they have led Pacific League in annual average attendance every single year except for 2021, where pandemic restrictions in Japan prevented them from reaching said goal.

[14] The Hawks front office adopted a strategy of drafting and developing younger players, supplemented by free agent signings, a policy overseen by team president Ryuzo Setoyama and his aides.

He brought in the likes of former Hanshin Tigers catcher Kenji Johjima, Kazumi Saitoh, Nobuhiko Matsunaka, future Chicago White Sox and Chiba Lotte Marines infielder Tadahito Iguchi, shortstop Munenori Kawasaki, and future team captain and current manager Hiroki Kokubo.

These moves, alongside a few unpopular cost-cutting measures, helped to make the Hawks gradually more competitive with each passing year, and in 1999, the team finally broke through.

That season, Daiei made their first Japan Series appearance since 1973 (and first as a Fukuoka team), and defeated the Chunichi Dragons in five games, giving them their first championship since 1964.

The Buffaloes played a weekend series against the Oh-managed Hawks late in the season, after already clinching the pennant on a walk-off grand slam against the Orix BlueWave on September 26.

Oh denied any involvement and Hawks battery coach Yoshiharu Wakana stated that the pitchers acted on his orders, saying, "It would be distasteful to see a foreign player break Oh's record."

SoftBank initially decided to lease the rights to the Fukuoka Dome for 4.8 billion yen per year for 20 years, but they would eventually purchase the stadium from the GIC affiliate for 87 billion yen in March 2012, with the stadium being fully owned by the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Marketing Corporation by July 1, 2015.

In 2006, a dramatic pennant race led to an even more exciting playoff run that ended in the Sapporo Dome at the hands of the eventual Japan Series Champions, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.

The Hawks' 2007 season was plagued by injuries and general ineffectiveness and inconsistency, leading to another 3rd-place finish and first-stage exit in the playoffs at the hands of the Marines.

In 2008, though various injuries still affected the Hawks' bench (especially the bullpen), the club claimed its first Interleague title in June, winning a tiebreaker against the Hanshin Tigers.

Oh announced his transfer to a front office role at the end of the season, as former Hawk and fan favorite Koji Akiyama was named as his successor.

The reliable "SBM" relieving trio of Settsu, Brian Falkenborg, and Mahara limited opponent offenses late in games.

Outfielder Yuki Yanagita won Pacific League MVP, the batting title, and a Triple 3 (.300 BA, 30 HR, 30 SB or better in all 3 categories).

The Hawks ended an injury-riddled and underwhelming 2021 with a 60–62–21 record, finishing 4th in the Pacific League, the first time the team had not qualified for the playoffs since 2013.

This marked the first time the top two teams in a league shared the exact same record in NPB history at the conclusion of the regular season, resulting in a tiebreaker being necessary.

[28] They would eventually fall to the Buffaloes in the second stage of the Climax Series, breaking an eighteen game playoff winning streak in the process.

[29] Before the 2023 season, the Hawks added to their already loaded core in response to losing ace Kodai Senga to the New York Mets[30] by signing elite contact hitter Kensuke Kondoh to a 7-year deal from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, poaching elite reliever Roberto Osuna away from the Chiba Lotte Marines,[31] and signing Kohei Arihara after a failed stint with the Texas Rangers.

The Hawks once again were active in the 2023–24 off-season, trading pitchers Keisuke Izumi and Rei Takahashi for Yomiuri Giants slugger Adam Walker,[33] acquiring first baseman slugger Hotaka Yamakawa after a scandal tarnished his image with the Lions, and extended foreign pitchers Liván Moinelo and Carter Stewart to long-term, record setting deals,[34][35] as well as converting Moinelo from a reliever to a starter to bolster their lackluster pitching.

Ultimately, however, the man who replaced him as manager of the Hawks, Akiyama, declined to wear the number on the grounds that the honor of bearing it would be too great so shortly after Oh's departure.