The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. Founded on February 22, 1938, as the Nankai Club, being the first Kansai team to play in Osaka proper, the team went through a few name changes before settling on Nankai Hawks in 1947, eventually changing ownership in and moving to Fukuoka in . The team subsequently became known as the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks until 2005, when they were purchased by SoftBank Group, becoming the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. Since 1993, the Hawks have played at Mizuho PayPay Dome Fukuoka, which has gone under several name changes and seats 40,142 people.
The Hawks are often regarded as one of the most successful franchises in Pacific League and the richest in all of baseball under the ownership of SoftBank Group,The Richest Sports Team Owners with the second most wins in all of Japanese sports, only trailing the Yomiuri Giants. The Hawks have played in the Japan Series 22 different times. The club also won two Japanese Baseball League championships in 1946 and 1948 while the team was based in Osaka. The Hawks' 12 Japan Series championships, including seven championships between and , and 21 Pacific League pennants, with the most recent of both coming in , are second-most in Pacific League and third-most in all of NPB, only trailing the Saitama Seibu Lions and Yomiuri Giants.
For various reasons, the Hawks experienced a 35 year title drought between and including a period of 25 years from to 1999 without a single Japan Series appearance, despite the relocation to Fukuoka. The drought finally ended in 1999, with gradual additions over the previous five years under new manager and all time home run king Sadaharu Oh. Under Oh (as manager and later executive), Daiei, and later SoftBank, the Hawks embraced internal development and sabremetrics as they eventually formed a baseball dynasty off of a core led by slugger Yuki Yanagita and aces Kodai Senga and Tsuyoshi Wada, capturing Japan Series titles in , , , , , , and , making the Hawks the first team since the –1973 Yomiuri Giants to win more than three consecutive championships.
Through 2025, the franchise's all-time record is 5,794–5,101–409 (.532). The team's manager is Hiroki Kokubo and the organization's acting CEO is .
History
Nankai Electric Railway Company ownership (1938–1988) The franchise that eventually became the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks was founded on February 22, 1938, by Nankai Electric Railway president Jinkichi Terada as , based in central Osaka. The organization was said to be created as a result of rival railway companies Hanshin Electric Railway and Hankyu convincing Nankai to create a baseball club of their own. While initially met with resistance, the club was admitted to the Japanese Baseball League (JPBL) in the fall of 1938, playing their first games at Sakai Ohama Stadium, but moved into Nakamozu Stadium in the city of Sakai in 1939. The team's name was changed to in mid-1944 as wartime austerity measures forced Nankai to temporarily merge with Kinki Nippon Railway. After the 1945 hiatus in the JBL due to the ending stages of World War II in Japan, in 1946 the team's name was changed to and the team won the JBL championship. The name was chosen as a translation of Japan's ancient name, Yamato, in a similar way to the Montreal Canadiens or the New York Yankees.
In mid-1947, when Nankai broke away from Kinki Nippon Railway, they decided to change the team's name, also due to the fact that the name was popular with American soldiers stationed in Osaka, since they also found it funny, and settled upon the moniker they would use until they would sell the team in 1988 – . The team was named after Nankai's logo, which, at that time, was a winged wheel. Other names considered were Condors, which was rejected because the Nankai representative who supervised the team was bald, and Cardinals, which was rejected because the club wanted to retain their colors, so they settled on the Hawks moniker.
After the JPBL was reorganized into Nippon Professional Baseball in , the Hawks chose to join the upstart Pacific League alongside the Mainichi Orions, Hankyu Braves, Tokyu Flyers, Daiei Stars, Nishitetsu Clippers, and Kintetsu Pearls. They also moved into the freshly built Osaka Stadium in the ward of Naniwa-ku, Osaka, where they would play until their move to Fukuoka after the season. Under player-manager Kazuto Tsuruoka (known as Kazuto Yamamoto from 1946 to 1958) they became one of the most successful franchises through the first two decades of the Pacific League's existence, taking two Japan Series championships in 1959 and 1964, as well as 10 Pacific League pennants, an amount that would not be duplicated by the club until . Tsuruoka managed the team from 1946 to 1968, becoming the full-time manager after his retirement as a player in 1952."Kazuto Tsuruoka," Baseball-Reference.com. Accessed March 28, 2015.
In 1964, the Hawks sent second year pitcher Masanori Murakami and two other young players to the San Francisco Giants' single-A affiliate in Fresno as baseball "exchange students". On September 1st of that year, Murakami became the first Japanese player to play in Major League Baseball when he appeared on the mound for the San Francisco Giants at Shea Stadium against the New York Mets. In his debut, Murakami pitched one inning, allowing one hit and facing four batters in a 1–4 loss for the Giants. Disputes over the rights to his contract eventually led to the 1967 United States – Japanese Player Contract Agreement, which effectively barred Japanese players from playing in MLB until Hideo Nomo exploited a loophole in the contract agreement to join the Los Angeles Dodgers in , although others had tried before, most notably pitcher Yutaka Enatsu, who tried to walk on to the Milwaukee Brewers in , but he was cut at the end of spring training. Murakami returned to the Hawks in 1966, playing for them through 1974. He contributed to the team's 1973 Japan Series appearance, their last under Nankai's ownership.
After player-manager Katsuya Nomura, the last player-manager to win a pennant in NPB, was traded to the Lotte Orions after he, under the influence of his second wife, Sachiyo, tried to float the idea of releasing Hiromitsu Kadota to management in , the Hawks fell straight to the basement for two decades, not finishing with a winning record again until . Following this debacle, Nankai's board of directors and union leadership put pressure on Den Kawakatsu, then-president of Nankai Electric Railways and primary owner of the team, to sell the team, which he refused to do. In response, Nankai's board refused to spend money on the Hawks beyond the bare minimum necessary to keep the team afloat. However, Kawakatsu, who represented the most ardent supporter of Nankai's ownership of the Hawks, died on April 23, 1988, and Nankai immediately put the team up for sale following Kawakatsu's death. The team was sold to supermarket chain Daiei, who moved the team to Fukuoka, to become the after the 1988 season.
Fukuoka Daiei Hawks (1988–2004) After the franchise was acquired by department store chain Daiei, Inc., the Hawks were moved to Fukuoka for two reasons; the first being the fact that the city had gone a decade without a team in the area, as the Crown Lighter Lions moved to Tokorozawa to become the Seibu Lions in 1978, and the second was that Daiei was looking to expand their reach as a brand to Kyushu, which Daiei had little to no presence in before the acquisition. As a result, they were no longer competing with the Hanshin Tigers, Kintetsu Buffaloes or even the by-then rechristened Orix Braves (later the Orix Blue Wave, now the Orix Buffaloes) for a market share of the Greater Osaka metropolitan area. However, in spite of those efforts of the new ownership, the Hawks still were usually in the cellar of the Pacific League, and continued to be at the bottom half of the league until 1997. The Hawks would play their first four seasons in Fukuoka at the Lions' old home of Heiwadai Stadium.
In 1993, the Hawks moved out of Heiwadai Stadium and into the newly constructed Fukuoka Dome, now known as Mizuho PayPay Dome Fukuoka, located 2.2 kilometers northwest of Heiwadai Stadium's former grounds. Heiwadai Stadium would later be closed in November 1997 and fully demolished by 2008. The Fukuoka Dome would be the first retractable roof stadium in NPB and the only retractable roof stadium until 2023, when Es Con Field Hokkaido opened. However, due to inefficient design, high operating costs, and the rainy climate of Fukuoka, the roof is only opened on special occasions (e.g. on Children's Day and other holidays) when the weather is clear, or if the Hawks win and there is a 30% or less chance of precipitation and the wind speed at 10 meters above the roof is 10 meters per second or slower. Since the Hawks moved to the Fukuoka Dome, they have led Pacific League in annual average attendance every single year except for 2021, where pandemic restrictions in Japan prevented them from reaching said goal.
The Hawks front office adopted a strategy of drafting and developing younger players, supplemented by free agent signings, a policy overseen by team president Ryuzo Setoyama and his aides. Setoyama's most brilliant moves were the hiring of home run king Sadaharu Oh in 1995 to take the reins of manager, a title he would hold until 2008 before he moved into the general manager's position. As of 2026, Oh is still with the Hawks organization as a chairman of the Hawks' board of directors, and still engages with day-to-day operations of the team at the age of 86. Oh replaced then-manager Rikuo Nemoto, who was named team president and held that position until his death in 1999. Also tapped was Akira Ishikawa, a little-known former player, who was tasked with bringing in talented amateurs. He brought in the likes of Kenji Johjima, Kazumi Saitoh, Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Tadahito Iguchi, Munenori Kawasaki, and future team captain and current manager Hiroki Kokubo through the draft, all of whom went on to become stars for the Hawks.
Supplementing the amateur signings were some notable free-agent acquisitions. Daiei competed with the then richest man in Japan, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, to pull former Seibu stars from their 1980s championship teams to Fukuoka. Among them were infielder Hiromichi Ishige, outfielder and Hawks manager from 2008 to 2014 Koji Akiyama, and left-handed pitcher and former manager Kimiyasu Kudoh.
These moves, alongside a few unpopular cost-cutting measures, helped to make the Hawks gradually more competitive with each passing year, and in 1999, the team finally broke through. That season, Daiei made their first Japan Series appearance since 1973 (and first as a Fukuoka team), and defeated the Chunichi Dragons in five games, giving them their first championship since 1964. Kudoh was dominant in his Game 1 start (complete game, 13 strikeouts), and Akiyama was named the 1999 Japan Series's most valuable player.
The following year, the Hawks again made the Japan Series, but this time lost to the Yomiuri Giants in six games, which saw two of the greatest players in NPB history, Oh and fellow Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima, face off as managers of their respective clubs. Despite the shaky financial ground that Daiei was on thanks to their rampant expansion in bubble-era Japan, the team continued to be competitive. The team won their second Japan Series in five years, defeating the Hanshin Tigers in seven games in the 2003 Japan Series, a series in which the home team won every game.
Home run record controversy