On September 28, 2026, South Korea's Kyunghyang Shinmun published an article titled, 'Japan is 'serious about baseball,' yet no live terrestrial broadcast... The South Korea-Japan match for the gold medal, who knew there would be such a difference in enthusiasm?'

At the ongoing Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the baseball final was held on the 27th, with South Korea and Japan competing for the gold medal. The article stated, 'The atmosphere in both countries watching the same final match was vastly different.'

In South Korea, all three terrestrial broadcasters, MBC, SBS, and KBS2, provided live coverage, and MBC and SBS delayed the start times of their news programs. In Japan, however, there was no live terrestrial broadcast of the baseball final, and viewers had to watch it through video streaming services and other platforms.

The article introduced how Japanese internet media also picked up on this situation, reporting that 'the background for this is that the Japanese national team consists of industrial league players, not professional baseball players.' Some fans reportedly expressed disappointment, saying, 'I feel like we're being treated poorly,' and 'It's a medal-deciding match, so why isn't there a terrestrial broadcast?' On the other hand, it also stated that there were not a few opinions suggesting, 'Considering the recognition and viewership ratings of industrial league baseball, it might have been difficult to broadcast it on terrestrial television.'

On the other hand, regarding South Korea, the article noted that 'the national team was formed mainly around active players from professional baseball. Japanese media also paid attention to the fact that many players whose military service exemption hinged on winning a gold medal were participating. South Korea won the game 3-1. South Korea has won five consecutive gold medals in baseball since the 2010 Guangzhou Games.' It then commented, 'More than the loss itself, there was a strong sentiment in Japan that it was significant that the industrial league players advanced to the final and put up a close fight against South Korea's professional players. It was a Japan-Korea final, but the perspectives of the two countries differed.'

In response to this article, many harsh comments were posted by South Korean netizens, such as 'Truly shameful,' 'South Korean professional baseball is at the level of Japan's industrial league,' 'We played Japan's industrial league team twice, completely losing 0-5 in the first game. In the second game, we barely managed to win, yet waving the Taegukgi so proudly was truly unsightly,' 'They were pushed to the limit by an industrial league team, and now they get military exemption?' 'I'm against granting military exemption for this,' and 'Three terrestrial broadcasters airing it live? Aren't they ashamed? It's a waste of airwaves, a waste of taxpayer money.' (Translation/Editing by Maasae)