Baseball might be America’s pastime, but it is also an omnipresent part of everyday life in Japan.
Never was that more clear than during Major League Baseball’s Tokyo Series between the Cubs and Dodgers that opened the 2025 regular season this past March. That two-game series — headlined by Japanese superstars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki — and the impact of baseball all around the country is the focus of a new documentary that will be coming to movie theaters soon.
“Homecoming: The Tokyo Series” celebrates the intersection of culture and global sport, illuminating how baseball unites beyond borders. Produced by Supper Club and in coordination with MLB Studios, the documentary will be shown in theaters on Feb. 23 and 24, distributed by Fathom Entertainment.
“We focused on the places where the game really lives, from workshops to local fields to people’s homes,” said director and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jason Sterman. “The Tokyo Series gave us a clear look at how baseball sits inside the country’s identity.”
The vérité-style documentary also reveals how Japan took an American invention and infused it with its own values, rituals, and spiritual relationship to work. As the Tokyo Series unfolds, human stories intertwine with the atmosphere and emotion surrounding the games, revealing baseball to be a true global sport.
“Major League Baseball continues to transcend around the globe,” said Noah Garden, MLB Deputy Commissioner, Business & Media. “The 2025 season started in grand fashion with five Japanese-born MLB players returning home as larger-than-life sports figures. It ended with the great Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and the Dodgers winning the World Series, watched by record-setting global audiences.
“Collaborating on this film to showcase how America’s pastime has become a world game is an opportunity we couldn’t pass up and are excited for fans everywhere to see.”
