The English translation is below
WBCはベネズエラの優勝で幕を閉じましたね
おめでとうございます！日本は準々決勝で負けてしまいましたが
1次リーグが日本の東京ドームで行われたこともあり
それを観た海外の人達の間で、日本の応援が独特だと話題になっていたようです
応援団が指揮して、生演奏のトランペットや太鼓が響き渡り
選手ごとの応援歌を、スタンドが同じ振り付けで踊っている〜♬
攻撃中はずっと応援し続けてるけど、終わればピタッと止んで
なんかONとOFFが激しい…というような（笑）
これは野球ファンだからできる、というワケではなくて
たまたま応援に行っただけ、という場合でも日本人なら
高確率で雰囲気に乗せられて歌って踊っているはずです♪
なぜかというと、私たちは応援の仕方を高校で学ぶからなのです！
日本では夏に、全国高校野球の大会という国民的イベントがあります
高校に野球部があれば、どんなに弱くても参加資格があって
甲子園を目指して、都道府県ごとにトーナメントの試合が行われます
県代表を決める、負けたら終わりの戦いです！
だから、日本の高校生たちはまずそこで野球の応援というものを
体験することになるんですよ。まるで必修科目のように。
試合がある時は、休講になり（イェイ♪）全校生徒が駆り出される
学校行事ですから〜
高校にはブラスバンドがあるので、プロ野球と同じく自由自在に
生演奏できます。選手ごとに応援歌を変えるのも同じですが
プロ野球とは違って、昔の定番曲だったり、最近のヒット曲が多いです
誰もが知ってる曲なので、ほかの観客でもすぐノレるんですよ♪
新１年生はまっさらな状態で、初めての試合を応援することになります
最初は戸惑いながらも、上級生のやり方や振り付けを真似て
試合中に実地形式で覚えていきます
打者が一巡する試合の中盤には、すでに完璧にマスター‼︎
なんせ目の前で我が校の選手が戦っているのですよ！
負けたら最後ですよ！応援だって燃えないワケないでしょう⁉︎
気がつけば声はかれ、応援グッズのうちわはボロボロの
骨だけになり、勝っても負けても完全燃焼！
こんな一体感を味わえる、野球の応援ってサイコーじゃん！
という応援好きが量産されていくのです…
特に強かった高校の生徒達にとっては、野球の応援は
青春の1ページになってることが多いんですよ
ちなみに甲子園に出場するような高校は、応援もレベルが高くて
こんな人文字のパフォーマンスもありました
タイミングを合わせて一斉にボードを掲げるんですよ〜
応援にもかなり練習が必要でしょうな〜〜まるで人間ピクセル！
こんなふうに本人が気づかないまま、「応援アプリ」が標準アプリとして
私達にインストールされます。このアプリ、普段は眠っていますが
ひとたび応援の場に入ったなら、自動で開いてしまうのです…！
知らない曲だからと諦めるのではなく、応援しながら
学習モードに入って、素早くフレーズや動きを習得します
もともと基本が身に付いているので、応用がきくのです！
みんながやっているから…ではなくて、進んでみんなと同じ動きを
したいんですよ🎵なんと言われようと、楽しいからやってるんです♪
みなさんも1度体験してみれば、病みつきになるかも知れませんよ⭐︎
The World Baseball Classic has come to an end with Venezuela taking the championship. Congratulations! Japan was unfortunately knocked out in the quarterfinals, but since the first round was held at Tokyo Dome, many overseas viewers got a chance to see Japanese baseball culture up close.
It seems that Japanese cheering styles caught a lot of attention for being quite unique.
In Japan, organized cheering squads lead the crowd, while live trumpets and drums echo throughout the stadium. Each player has their own cheering song, and the entire stand moves in sync with choreographed motions.
Fans keep cheering continuously while their team is on offense, but the moment the inning ends, everything suddenly stops.
It’s like a dramatic switch between “ON” and “OFF” — which can feel a bit intense (in a funny way).
And it’s not something only baseball fans can do.
Even if someone just happens to attend a game for the first time, most Japanese people will naturally find themselves singing and moving along with the crowd.
Why?
Because we learn how to cheer in high school.
In Japan, there is a nationwide high school baseball tournament held every summer — a major national event.
Any high school with a baseball team can participate, no matter how strong or weak they are. Teams compete in regional tournaments across each prefecture, all aiming for a spot at Koshien Stadium.
It’s a single-elimination tournament to decide each prefecture’s representative — once you lose, it’s over.
For many Japanese students, this is where they first experience what baseball cheering is like. In a way, it’s almost like a required course.
On game days, classes are often canceled (yay!), and the entire school is mobilized to support the team.
It’s not just a game — it’s a school event.
Since most high schools have a brass band, they can perform live music just like in professional baseball games.
Each player has their own cheering song, but unlike pro baseball, many of these are well-known classics or recent hit songs.
Because the tunes are familiar to almost everyone, even people in the crowd who aren’t from the school can easily join in and have fun.
New first-year students start out with no experience, cheering at their very first game.
At first, they may feel a bit unsure, but they quickly pick things up by watching the upperclassmen and copying their moves and chants — learning as they go during the game itself.
By the middle of the game, once the lineup has gone around, they’ve already mastered it.
After all, their own school’s players are right there, fighting in front of them. And if they lose, it’s over.
How could you not get fired up?
Before they know it, their voices are hoarse, and their cheering fans are reduced to little more than broken frames. Win or lose, they give it everything they’ve got.
That’s how people discover the thrill of cheering — that incredible sense of unity.
And that’s how a whole generation of cheering enthusiasts is created.
For students from especially strong teams, cheering for baseball often becomes one of the defining memories of their youth.
By the way, schools that make it all the way to Koshien tend to have incredibly high-level cheering as well.
Some even put on large-scale performances like coordinated card stunts in the stands.
At just the right moment, everyone raises their boards all at once in perfect sync.
It must take a lot of practice to pull off something like that.
It’s like… human pixels.
In this way, without even realizing it, an “internal cheering app” gets installed in us as a default setting.
Most of the time, it stays dormant. But the moment we step into a cheering environment, it automatically switches on.
Instead of giving up just because we don’t know the song, we slip into “learning mode” while cheering — quickly picking up the phrases and movements on the spot.
Since we already have the basics, it’s easy to adapt.
And it’s not just because “everyone else is doing it.” We genuinely want to move together with the crowd.
No matter how it may look from the outside, we’re simply doing it because it’s fun.
If you ever get the chance, you might find yourself hooked after trying it just once ⭐︎
