YOKOHAMA -- In an abrupt turnabout, Yokohama BayStars, a Central League pro-baseball club, on Thursday scrapped plans to have the National Defense Academy's honor guard fire a gun salute at its season opener today at Yokohama Stadium.
The reversal was decided upon Wednesday evening, following a request from the Yokohama Municipal Government. "With youths going wild with an obsession for lethal weapons such as butterfly knives and guns, we thought the gun salute was not appropriate," an official from the board of education's sports department told The Japan Times.
Initially, the BayStars, celebrating an opener on its turf for the first time in seven years, asked the academy early this year to send its honor guard to the ceremony. In accordance with the academy's request, the ball club sent the institute an official invitation March 3, signed jointly by the club and its fan club. The municipal board of education acts as the fan club's secretariat, and Yokohama Mayor Hidenobu Takahide is the club's chairman.
The board of education read about the plan for the honor guard to fire blanks in a gun salute in the ceremony only after reading a report about it in a sports newspaper, and asked the club not to include the salute. "We thought the honor guard would act only as a marching band," the education board official said, insisting a lack of communication with the BayStars was to blame for the misunderstanding. "We just wanted to put more enthusiasm into the opening game, but might have gone too far," an official from the ball club said. An academy official added, "We thought it would work to improve our public image ... I just don't understand why the honor guard shouldn't fire blanks as a salute."