Shiba Taguchi, Ryukyu Sports News

Naha, Japan – November 9, 2020: Shisa executives today unveiled some major changes to the Shisa brand heading into the club’s first season in the PEBA. Team president Hatsuo Ko explained to a group of reporters gathered at the Shisa offices in Naha that marketing the team to a now global audience, and the effort to compete in a new league, led the club to make some changes.

First of all, the name change. Beginning in the 2021 season, the team will be known as the Okinawa Shisa. Ko told reporters that two factors influenced executives when considering the name change: the desire to appeal to a more regional fan base, and the desire to market the club in North America and Europe. The Shisa’s efforts to expand the team’s domestic footprint outside of Naha have been ongoing since last off-season, when the club expanded its minor league system on Kyushu Island. Changing the name of the team from Naha to Okinawa, appears to follow this more regional approach the team has embarked upon. Also, polling conducted on the team’s behalf in North America indicated that most baseball fans had no idea where Naha is or that a professional baseball team plays there. Far more people at least recognized the name Okinawa and could place it in Japan. As the Shisa looked overseas for new fans, becoming Okinawa made sense to team executives.

Along with the name change has come a brand new team logo and uniforms. The Shisa have retained their traditional blue, red, and white color scheme, though they have adopted a more traditional look for new “home whites”. The new team logo, a smiling Shisa head, also appears on the new Shisa caps. Ko stated that the team had decided that along with the name change, a new aesthetic scheme was an appropriate way for the club to mark the beginning of a new era.  Additionally, Ko believes that the new logo, with no script of any kind (either Kanji or Latin letters), will prove to be more iconic in the long run, and more likely to be remembered by baseball fans throughout the league.