News--Welcome to National Chiayi University

　　National Chiayi University and Chukyo University, Japan, signed an academic exchange agreement in 2015, where both universities take turns organizing baseball friendship matches every summer to revive the splendor of the Koshien championship. As NCYU celebrates its centennial anniversary, the Chukyo University baseball team visited Chiayi with a letter of congratulations on August 3rd. Two friendly matches between the two are scheduled to take place at Chiayi Baseball Field on August 4th and 5th. The matches, which are expected to turn into a ferocious competition, are open to the public with no admission charge. All baseball lovers and NCYU baseball team fans are welcome to show up and cheer for the players.

　　According to NCYU, Chukyo High School became affiliated with Chukyo University in 1995. It is the educational institute with the highest number of winnings in the Koshien history, including four championships in the spring games, and seven championships in the summer games. It first made it to Koshien in 1931, and broke the Koshien record by securing a third successive championship in 1933. It was during the golden days of Chukyo High School when the Kano baseball team competed with the Chukyo team, the then strongest baseball team in Japan. It was was a glorious defeat that the Kano baseball team won the second prize award, losing to a strong opponent in a foreign country.

　　In 1931, the Kano baseball team participated in the 17th edition of Summer Koshien in Japan on behalf of Taiwan with the Kano spirit of “never give up.” The team obtained a runner-up award, coming as a bombshell to the baseball world in Japan. The Kano baseball team has since been feted as “Heroes’ Battlefield, Unequaled Kano,” and become known worldwide, making Chiayi the homeland of baseball. In 2014, the renowned director Umin Boya, also known as Ma Chih-hsiang, adapted the Kano history and the Koshien championship into the film, KANO. It has swept the box office by earning more than NT$0.1 billion domestically, making the baseball fans want to see more. In 2019, Chukyo University will join the exchange series in Taiwan, restoring the former glory of the Koshien championship in 1931. The baseball exchange program has become one of the most significant baseball events for both Taiwan and Japan, and is bound to create another trend in the baseball world.