They're not fighting ham in Japan

They take it to the store, to the train station, to the newsstand, even to the can opener.

Unlike MLB teams, whose owners often are well-known icons like George Steinbrenner and Arte Moreno, most Japanese ownership has a corporate face, and the reason why is no secret.

Take the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, for example. They don't fight ham. Nope. They sell it, baby.

Nippon Ham is a large meat-packing company, in business for more than 55 years, and since 1974, it has been selling sausages and baseball to the masses.

But meat is only the beginning.

A stroll through Shibuya, Tokyo's Times Square, will lead eventually to a huge, three-tower Seibu department store, one of a chain. Featuring multiple floors stacked high with top-dollar brands, Seibu is a magnet for upscale shoppers.

Just wait until the Seibu Lions win the Japan Series again.

The Lions dominated Japan in the 1980s and early '90s, winning eight championships from 1982-92, and in celebration of its titles, prices in the stores were slashed post-Series, sending consumers into a frenzy that shot Seibu's revenues through the roof. Fans were happy to get deals, and Seibu laughed all the way to the bank.

The store is not even the largest part of Seibu's corporate makeup. A railway company first and foremost, Seibu will take you to the store, take you through the world's busiest train station, take you anywhere its lines go, even to the Lions.

Invoice Seibu Dome, home of the Lions, is relatively far from Tokyo, located in Saitama Prefecture, almost two hours by train from central Godzilla Town.

And eventually, most any spectator who isn't driving to the game will have to hop on one of Seibu's train lines, the last of which is an archaic train on tires and a concrete track -- kind of like a bus without free will.

Seibu controls the ingress of fans, and with talent like World Baseball Classic MVP Daisuke Matsuzaka on the roster, business is good.

Seibu's model is not the only train hop-shop one-two punch. Hanshin Electric Railway sponsors the 2005 Central League champion Hanshin Tigers.

Even mass communication is not safe. Or, of course it is not safe. Take your pick.

Japan's beloved Yomiuri Giants, the most storied and popular team in Nippon Professional Baseball, is owned by the Yomiuri Shimbun, the world's largest newspaper with a circulation of more than 10 million.

And one reason the circulation stays so high is its connection with the Giants, whose loyal fans turn to the house organ for news about Tokyo Dome's famous residents.

College basketball fans in the United States "read" the newspaper when the opposing starters are announced prior to games. For Yomiuri fans, the paper is a kanji-clad expression of love.

And sometimes people won't read any other paper. Especially if it is the Chunichi Shimbun, which owns Nagoya's Chunichi Dragons.

It would be tantamount to a Dodgers fan refusing to park anywhere other than owner Frank McCourt's parking lots, solely out of loyalty to Dodger Blue. Because McCourt's lots were in Boston, it wasn't a discussion to be had, but you get the picture.

Last season, the Chiba Lotte Marines won the Japan Series. Their owner couldn't find Chiba Marine Stadium with a GPS, but for more than 30 years, the Lotte name has been attached to the team.

Lotte -- imagine the Wm. Wrigley company, only Korean -- was the laughingstock of Japanese baseball, a perennial bottom-feeder, until former Mets and Rangers manager Bobby Valentine took over. Lotte has had three winning seasons since winning the Japan Series in 1974, all of which came with Valentine at the helm (including a one-season stint in 1995, before he returned in 2004), so the attention-grabbing team names aren't always positive.

Although the Lotte name is plastered in just about every place imaginable in downtown Seoul (hotels, department stores -- soon, the sky), it is mostly known for candy making in Japan. But Bobby V. made Lotte a winner last season, a bag of Lotte herbal throat drops in the dugout every day at practice along the way.

Yakult, owner of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, makes a popular yogurt drink. And the trend goes on and on.

Sadaharu Oh's Fukuoka Softbank Hawks are one of the richest teams in Japan, backed by a venture capital and technology giant. The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, playing their second season, are backed by an e-commerce company.

The Yokohama BayStars are owned by a huge TV company, and the Orix Buffaloes -- a merged team that once was the Kintetsu Buffaloes and Ichiro Suzuki's Orix BlueWave -- can set you up with the rental car and hotel room of your dreams, whether it be in Osaka or Kobe, where the team splits its home games.

One outsider is the Hiroshima Carp, which is owned largely by automaker Mazda and the City of Hiroshima -- similar to the Green Bay Packers. Its principal owner is Hajime Matsuda, who is somewhat hands-on as far as Japanese owners go, having much to do with the hiring of foreign manager Marty Brown in the offseason.

Known for developing talent in hitter-friendly Hiroshima Stadium before losing it to free agency, the Carp do not throw around much money, but with a few more fans climbing into Miatas, maybe the team could roll into Central League relevancy.

In the meantime, however, owners who do take plastic keep racking up numbers, helping them build teams that do the same thing.

And fans read about it in the papers, unless they're Tigers fans. Then they just talk about it on the train.