They are also by far the most successful, having won 22 Japan Series titles and an additional nine in the era of NPB's forerunner, the Japanese Baseball League.

The Yomiuri Giants are regarded as "The New York Yankees of Japan" due to their widespread popularity, past dominance of the league, and polarizing effect on fans.

The team is often referred by fans and in news headlines and tables simply as Kyojin (巨人, the Japanese word for "giant(s)"), instead of the usual corporate owner's name or the English nickname.

While prior Japanese all-star contingents had disbanded, Shōriki went pro with this group, playing in an independent league.

When they faced off against the San Francisco Seals, the manager of the Seals, Lefty O'Doul, stated the team needed a promotional name, as just the team being named "Tokyo Dai Nippon Baseball Club" wouldn't mean anything of note to Americans, and because the tour was heavily funded with ticket sales.

However, the Giants name would face minor challenging from Shōriki himself after the tour, as he wanted to name the team the Tokyo Golden Kites, after the Order of the Golden Kite, a military order of the Empire of Japan (which would be abolished in 1947 following World War II).

Sawamura was conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army in 1938, 1941, and 1943; he returned to play for the Giants between deployments, though injuries and time away hindered his form and velocity.

Outfielder Haruyasu Nakajima was a featured hitter during the franchise's first decade-and-a-half, and as player-manager led the Kyojin to a championship in 1941.

World career home run record holder Sadaharu Oh starred for the Giants from 1959 to 1980, and fellow Hall of Famer Shigeo Nagashima played for the team from 1958 to 1974.

Now the team's manager, Tetsuharu Kawakami led the Giants to nine consecutive Japan Series championships from 1965 to 1973,[4] and Oh and Nagashima dominated the batting titles during this period.

Outfielder Hideki Matsui starred for the Giants for ten seasons in the 1990s and early 2000s before migrating to Major League Baseball.

He was a three-time NPB MVP, leading his team to four Japan Series, winning three titles (1994, 2000 and 2002), and earning the popular nickname "Godzilla".

The Giants-Tigers feud began on July 15, 1936 in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, at a time where Japanese clubs besides the Tigers did not have set home ballparks, and would bounce around wherever they could play.

This game would set the tone for the history-setting rivalry, as the first home run in Giants professional club history would come on that day at the hands of Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame member Haruyasu Nakajima off Tigers' ace Tadashi Wakabayashi, but the Tigers would win the game 8-7.

On September 25, 1936, young Giants ace Eiji Sawamura threw the first no-hitter in Japanese professional baseball history against the Tigers at Hanshin Koshien Stadium.

However, the rivalry never truly began in earnest until Yakult, who bought the team from national newspaper Sankei Shimbun in 1970, added "Tokyo" to the team's name in the 2005-06 NPB offseason, where games began being referred to by the media as the "TOKYOシリーズ", or literally "Tokyo Series" in Japanese.

Since Yakult added Tokyo to the Swallows name in 2006, the Giants lead the head-to-head regular season series 260–184–19.

Sourse:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB)[citation needed] Sourse:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB)[citation needed] Sourse:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB)[citation needed] Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, % = Win Percentage Due to the Yomiuri company's vast influence in Japan as a major media conglomerate, the Giants have long been branded as "Japan's Team".

[1] In August 2004, Yomiuri president Tsuneo Watanabe resigned after it was revealed that the club had violated scouting rules by paying ¥2 million to pitching prospect Yasuhiro Ichiba.

[10] In 2012, Asahi Shimbun discovered that the Giants had violated NPB rules by secretly paying pitcher Takahiko Nomaguchi while he was still an amateur playing in Japan's corporate league.

As of October 21 before this game was played, the teams only had a 0.5 game difference the Hanshin Tigers, this game resulted 9 to 0 win over Tigers on October 22, infielder Shozo Doi and catcher Masaaki Mori each had 3 hits and Doi hit a two run homerun in the fifth inning off Kenji Furusawa in the Giants 4 to 1 win from Nankai Hawks (now Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks) in Japan Series, starter Kazumi Takahashi (23 wins, 13 losses) contribution this season.

[12] In 1985, American Randy Bass, playing for the Hanshin Tigers, came into the last game of the season against the Oh-managed Giants with 54 home runs, one short of manager Sadaharu Oh's single-season record of 55.

The magazine Takarajima investigated the incident and reported that the Giants front office had likely ordered the team not to allow Bass an opportunity to tie or break Oh's record.

The team accelerates at a stretch when winning in nine consecutive hits of professional baseball tie-record in one inning of July 9 against Hiroshima Carp's game.

[page needed] Despite losing five consecutive games from the opening game on March 28, On May 26, a banned drug was detected to be used by Luis Gonzalez, so he was suspended for 1 year from Nippon Professional Baseball for violating league anti-doping policies,[14] and on the following day, the Giants decided to release Gonzalez from his contract.

At the time, October reached the biggest 13 game (as July) difference in league history and accomplished the league championship, from September 19, including their 3rd consecutive victory against the Hanshin Tigers, they recorded a total of 12 consecutive victories for the first time in 32 years, followed by 3 to 1 winning the final direct confrontation on October 8.

Contributors included Shinnosuke Abe, Yoshinobu Takahashi, Michihiro Ogasawara, Alex Ramirez, Seth Adam Greisinger, Marc Jason Kroon, Hisanori Takahashi, and Tetsuya Utsumi, The Giants, however, lost 3 games to 4 to the Saitama Seibu Lions in the 2008 Japan Series.

The Yomiuri corporation admitted that the payout had been made, but sued Shukan Bunshun for insinuating that the incident had underworld connections.

[19] In 2015, an investigation by the league found that three Giants pitchers: Shoki Kasahara, Ryuya Matsumoto, and Satoshi Fukuda had bet on NPB and other sporting events with underworld bookmakers.

Placing wagers on baseball games or associating with criminal elements is expressly prohibited in the contracts that all NPB players must sign, a rule similar to Major League Baseball's Rule 21 in North America, intended to prevent a repeat of the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.