Daiei Stars

The Daiei Stars (大映スターズ, Daiei Sutāzu) were a Japanese professional baseball team that was founded in 1946, and played in various incarnations until 1957. Overall, the franchise only had three winning seasons, never rising higher than third place. They were in the second division, or B-class, for seven seasons, including their last four years. The Stars played in Korakuen Stadium in Bunkyo, Tokyo.

Franchise history

Japanese Baseball League

The franchise was founded as Gold Star, a new post-war team in the Japanese Baseball League. They were owned by textile manufacturer and Lucky Gold Star Telephones owner Komajiro Tamura, who also owned Pacific (formerly Asahi). Gold Star consisted mostly of former Asahi Baseball Club players, and was managed by Asahi's former manager Michinori Tubouchi. In the team's inaugural season, they won 43 games and lost 60, finishing 22 games out of first place.

The next year the team became the Kinsei Stars ("Kinsei" meaning gold star in Japanese) and signed long-time Tokyo Kyojin/Yomiuri Giants pitcher Victor Starffin (who came over from Tamura's other team, the Taiyo Robins [formerly Gold Star]). Starffin pitched for the franchise for six seasons, winning 80 games and losing 70. 1948 was also when the team hired Sadayoshi Fujimoto as manager (he stayed at the helm of the team until partway through their final season, 1956).

Daiei

The Daiei, Inc. (株式会社ダイエー, Kabushiki-kaisha Daiē), based in Kobe, is one of the largest supermarket chains in Japan. In 1957, Isao Nakauchi founded the chain in Osaka near Sembayashi Station on the Keihan train line. Daiei is now under a restructuring process supported by Marubeni Corporation and ÆON Co., Ltd., another Japanese supermarket chain. Daiei Inc. currently runs more than 3,000 stores under the Daiei name as well as through its subsidiaries. In addition to groceries, Daiei is also a department store, selling electronics, home furnishings, and clothes. In terms of net sales, Daiei used to be the largest retailer in Japan. However, total sales declined by nearly a quarter in the five years leading up to 2003.

The retail chain expanded rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s. Also, stronger sales from competitors such as Ito-Yokado, ÆON, and other regional supermarket chains have hurt Daiei's sales record in recent years.

As a part of the series of bootstrap restructuring efforts to avoid filing for IRCJ (Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan) support, the company sold its famous and popular baseball team, the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks to Softbank, on January 27, 2005 and the company's Hawaii stores in 2006 to Don Quijote Co., Ltd. Through the process of debt restructuring and support given by financial institutions in coordination with IRCJ, the company has been acquired by IRCJ, Marubeni Corporation (a trading company) and Advantage Partners (a private equity house) in 2005.

Daiei (disambiguation)

Daiei may refer to:

Daiei (era)

Daiei (大永), also known as Taiei or Dai-ei, was a Japanese era name (年号,, nengō,, lit. "year name") after Eishō and before Kyōroku. This period spanned the years from August 1521 through August 1528. The reigning emperors were Go-Kashiwabara-tennō (後柏原天皇) and Go-Nara-tennō (後奈良天皇).

Change of era

Events of the Daiei era