2024 Japan Series

The 2024 Japan Series (日本シリーズ, Nippon Shiriizu) was the championship series of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the 2024 season. The 75th edition of the Japan Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of the Central League (CL) and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Pacific League (PL). The series began on October 26 and ended on November 3 with the BayStars winning in six games. It was the BayStars' first Japan Series appearance and win since 2017 and 1998 respectively, and the Hawks' first Japan Series appearance since 2020.

The Hawks were the best team in NPB all season and won the PL title, which advanced them directly to the final stage of the PL Climax Series where they swept the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters to advance to the Japan Series. The BayStars finished the regular season third in the CL, allowing them to face off against the Hanshin Tigers in the first stage of the CL Climax Series. After sweeping the Tigers in two games, DeNA took the CL-winning Yomiuri Giants to an ultimate Game 6 in the final stage and won to clinch their Japan Series berth.

SoftBank won the first two games of the series and extended their record consecutive Japan Series win streak to fourteen games. DeNA broke the streak, however, and won the next four games. In that stretch, they kept the Hawks scoreless for 29 consecutive innings, a Japan Series record. DeNA's win has been called one of the biggest upsets in Japan Series history. The championship was their first in 26 years and their third overall. Masayuki Kuwahara was named the Japan Series Most Valuable Player.

The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks clinched their first Pacific League (PL) championship in four years and 20th overall on September 23. Hiroki Kokubo led the Hawks to the pennant in his first year as the team's manager. SoftBank led the league for the majority of the season, never relinquishing first place after taking the top spot on April 4th. SoftBank won their final game of the season, allowing Kokubo to break the record for most wins in single regular season by a first-year manager. The 91-win season was only the thirteenth time a team won 90 or more games in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) history and the first since they won 94 games in 2017. Several Hawks players earned end-of-season PL superlatives. On offense, Hotaka Yamakawa finished the season with 34 home runs and 99 runs batted in, the most by a wide margin. Kensuke Kondo's .314 batting average earned him the PL batting title and the PL MVP award, and Ukyo Shuto stole the most bases. Among pitchers, Liván Moinelo had the best earned run average (ERA) among PL starting pitchers with a 1.88 ERA in his first season as a starter and Kohei Arihara ended the season tied for the most wins, with 14.

As winners of the Pacific League, SoftBank advanced directly to the final stage of the PL Climax Series where they hosted the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, the PL runner-up and eventual winner of the first stage. SoftBank began the best-of-six series with a one-win advantage and swept the next three games against Nippon-Ham to advance to the Japan Series.

In the Central League (CL), the Hiroshima Toyo Carp were narrowly in first place at the end of August. They had a disastrous September, however, losing 20 of 25 games, and quickly dropped in the rankings. As the season came to a close, Hiroshima continued to lose. A fourth Carp loss in a row on October 2 confirmed that the Yokohama DeNA BayStars would clinch third place and their third straight trip to the Climax Series. First-year team captain Shugo Maki and eventual 2024 batting champion Tyler Austin powered the DeNA offense, while ace Katsuki Azuma led the pitching staff with thirteen wins. From the start of the season, Azuma won eight straight games, helping the BayStars reach second place by the end of June. A month later, however, the team was in the midst of a nine-game losing streak and found themselves knocked down to fourth. Still in fourth and outside of Climax Series qualification on August 27, Maki introduced the motto "determined to win" to the team. The BayStars immediately went on a five-game win streak and finished the next month with a September record of 11–9–1. This push along with Hiroshima's fall secured DeNA a playoff appearance. They finished the season eight games behind the pennant-winning Yomiuri Giants.

As third-place finishers, the BayStars were the road team for all games played in the CL Climax Series. In the first stage, a best-of-three series, they defeated the second-place Hanshin Tigers in two games at Koshien Stadium. The sweep advanced DeNA to the final stage, where they faced off against the CL-champion Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome. The BayStars won the first three games of the series, giving them five straight Climax Series wins. The Giants won the second two games, however, with the one game advantage afforded to the league winner, the series was tied at three games a piece going into the final Game 6. DeNA won the game and series with a come-from-behind win and clinched their first Japan Series berth since 2017.

SoftBank is considered to be a current NPB dynasty, winning seven of the ten Japan Series from 2011 to 2020. This series was their first Japan Series appearance since 2020, one they finished in a four-game sweep to earn their eleventh championship. Including the 2020 series, the Hawks won their last twelve straight Japan Series games coming into Game 1 of this season's championship series.