NPB moves to review Climax Series advantage – how much should the regular season be worth?
The NPB’s executive committee, consisting of league officials and representatives from all 12 clubs, met in Tokyo on 1 December and placed a full-scale review of the Climax Series (CS) format on the agenda. At the heart of the debate is whether to change the one-win advantage currently granted to the league champion in the Final Stage.
Rakuten director Tomoharu Inoue, who serves as Pacific League president, commented that “if we are to implement any changes from next season, we need to reach a conclusion by the board meeting in March at the latest,” adding that the league is “looking for a system that fans can accept, including ideas linked to winning percentage and games-back.”
Why review the CS now? The balance between regular-season value and drama
In simple terms, the background is a long-running tug-of-war between the value of a 143-game regular season and the excitement of short playoff series.
- Even if the league champion finishes far ahead of second place, the CS Final Stage advantage stays fixed at just “one win”.
- A third-place team with a sub-.500 record can still qualify for the CS.
- When a lower seed runs the table in October and reaches the Japan Series, critics ask: “What was the point of the six-month regular season?”
In 2025, Hanshin won the Central League by 13 games over second-place DeNA, while in the Pacific League SoftBank finished 4.5 games clear of Nippon-Ham. Consecutive seasons with runaway winners have intensified calls to adjust the CS in a way that reflects those gaps more clearly.
2025 standings highlight the gap between No.1 and the chasers
To visualise the issue, it helps to look at the 2025 final standings (top three teams). The figures below are taken from NPB and official club announcements.
Central League – top three (2025)
| Place | Club | G | W | L | T | Win % | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hanshin Tigers | 143 | 85 | 54 | 4 | .612 | – |
| 2 | Yokohama DeNA BayStars | 143 | 71 | 66 | 6 | .518 | 13.0 |
| 3 | Yomiuri Giants | 143 | 70 | 69 | 4 | .504 | 15.0 |
Pacific League – top three (2025)
| Place | Club | G | W | L | T | Win % | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 143 | 87 | 52 | 4 | .626 | – |
| 2 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | 143 | 83 | 57 | 3 | .593 | 4.5 |
| 3 | Orix Buffaloes | 143 | 74 | 66 | 3 | .529 | 13.5 |
These numbers underline the basic tension: how much of this hard-earned separation over 143 games should carry over into a maximum of six games in the CS Final? That is the core of the current discussion.
Current CS format: league champion gets “one win” and full home-field advantage
Under the current format (as of the 2025 season), the CS is structured as follows:
| Stage | Matchup | Games | Advancement | Home team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Stage | 2nd vs. 3rd in the regular season | Best of three | First to two wins (ties excluded). | All games at the 2nd-place team’s home park. |
| Final Stage | 1st place (league champion) vs. First Stage winner | Max. six games | The 1st-place team starts with a one-win advantage; first to four wins, including the advantage, advances. | All games at the 1st-place team’s home park. |
In other words, the league champion begins the series already “up 1–0” and never leaves their home stadium. Even so, there have been years where a third-place team has reached the Japan Series, reigniting arguments over whether the advantage is too weak, too strong, or just right.
Ideas on the table: dynamic advantages based on games-back or win percentage
The latest executive committee did not agree on a concrete new rule, but rather on the direction of the discussion – namely, what metrics should be used to calculate any additional advantage.
Looking at past proposals from commentators and former players, several patterns seem likely to enter the debate:
- Games-back model: for example, if the gap between first and second is 10 or more games, the league champion could start the Final Stage with a two-win advantage; between five and nine games, one win; otherwise, the current system.
- Win-percentage model: if the champion posts a win percentage of .600 or higher while the challenger is around .500, the advantage could be increased.
- Shorter series model: keep the one-win advantage but shorten the Final Stage to a best-of-five, reducing the scope for upsets.
On the other hand, there remain powerful voices arguing that the current format should be retained. Club executives are wary of going “too far” in favour of the league champion if it makes the CS feel predetermined and undermines fan interest in the postseason.
Notably, more radical ideas such as banning sub-.500 teams from the CS are not among the items currently under serious consideration.
Looking back at the 2025 CS and Japan Series via X and YouTube
The debate over the CS does not take place in a vacuum. It is coloured by how fans experienced the 2025 Climax Series and Japan Series. In 2025, Hanshin and SoftBank, both league champions, met in the Japan Series, where SoftBank won four games to one.
NPB’s official X and YouTube accounts highlighted the atmosphere of the decisive Game 5 and the path both clubs took from spring training to the championship. How those narratives are framed – as a coronation of the strongest teams or as just another short tournament – feeds back into the ongoing discussion of the CS format.
Column: how to protect the weight of the regular season
Since the introduction of the CS, there has been a persistent question among fans and media alike: does the postseason boost excitement at the expense of the value of a league title?
- If a team posts a win percentage above .600 and wins the league by double-digit games, what level of “reward” is appropriate?
- Conversely, if the CS loses its potential for upsets and drama, does the postseason itself lose value?
- How often should a third-place run to the Japan Series be seen as a romantic “giant-killing” story, and how often as an unhealthy distortion of a 143-game season?
With NPB and all 12 clubs now openly acknowledging that “changes from next season are on the table”, the Climax Series has clearly entered a new phase where reform is being discussed not as a taboo, but as a realistic option.
Whatever the final shape of the system, the hope is to strike a balance where the team that dominated from March to October is properly rewarded, while the CS still retains enough volatility and drama to capture the imagination of fans every autumn.
