Wednesday's face-up between Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsukaza and Mariners' star Ichiro Suzuki captured the attention of millions of fans in Japan and the U.S. This growing prominence of Japanese ball players in America is a matter of great pride to the Japanese. And the Japanese players are bringing new dimensions of richness and excitement to U.S. baseball.

But the story of Japanese ballplayers coming to America is also reveals a deep weakness of the Japanese economy that stems from intolerance and conformity and a key strength of Washington State in its tolerance and diversity. Kerry Killinger, CEO of WAMU, noted in a recent speech that about one quarter of all patents in Washington State are filed by non-citizens. Immigrants are critical to the ongoing success of our economy as is trade. As voices rise for protectionism and against immigration, our willingness to defend our society and our economy's openness will be tested.

Robert Whiting, author of the brilliant book on conformity in Japanese baseball, "You Gotta Have Wa," describes in the first of a four part series on Japanese baseball in the Japan Times this week the joy Japan has gotten from seeing Japanese ballplayers perform so well in American stadiums. "Japanese were once seen in the USA as a 'faceless' people obsessed with exporting cars and consumer electronics," Whiting writes, quoting from the editorial pages of the Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper, "The excellent play of the Japanese baseball players and their positive personalities have changed the American image of the Japanese." He adds a quote from Masa Niwa, a well-known Seattle-based reporter who writes for various Japanese sports publications: "People on the street look at us Japanese differently than they used to. There's a new respect."

It's wonderful that Japan has found in these baseball players a new generation of heroes. It is true that these men have improved the image of Japan overseas. Ichiro does not fit the old stereotype of the Japanese businessman in white shirt and tie. But even as they admire the players' successes, many pundits in Japan complain that the "talent drain" of Japan's star ballplayers to the United States is destroying Japanese baseball.

 True, the huge salaries American baseball is paying for Japanese talent (the Boston Red Sox spent $ 103 million to sign up their new Japanese pitcher, Daisuke Matsukaza) simply can't be matched by the Japanese leagues. It's also true that the loss of these starts has cut deeply into Japanese baseball's television audience. Matsui's departure from the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants to the Yankees, for example, contributed to a 10 million drop in viewership of Yomiuri games, according to Whiting.

But Whiting argues that the companies that own Japanese baseball teams have hurt themselves by making the game secondary to the main businesses line. The teams, he suggests, are primarily seen as cheap advertising.  "It is considered less expensive to buy and operate a baseball team, that appears under the name of the parent company in the media every day, than it is to buy advertising on prime-time TV nightly in Japan?.The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, the 2006 champions of Japan, are owned by meat processing giant Nippon Ham, and exist mainly for the purpose of promoting selling weiners."

The insistence in Japanese baseball teams in forcing players to conform to certain behavior and to bat in certain designated ways has also hurt their performance. Japanese teams also have quotas restricting the number of non-Japanese players who can play on each team. Players, even the best players, also have relatively low salaries. No wonder the stars leave.