Where Eagles Dare A Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Fansite

Watch NPB Online

There are a few ways to catch all the action of Nippon Pro Baseball (NPB) live right on your computer.

Yahoo! Japan

The best way is if you live in Japan.  Just make your way over to the Yahoo! Pro Yakyu page and simply click on what game you want to watch!  You'll have to install a small file on your computer, which is the streaming software.  The quality is excellent; I connect my laptop to my TV, allowing me to watch the game while still being able to surf the web unhindered!

There are a couple of issues I've found though.  It would appear that there are some geo-restrictions that limit what games you can watch.  For example, I live in Sendai, home of the Rakuten Eagles who are in the Pacific League.  As a result, I can only watch Pacific League games on Yahoo! Japan.  For me it isn't a problem because I live in the same town that I cheer for.  But my friend who's from Hiroshima won't be able to watch the Carp play.  I'm not sure if you can view these games from outside Japan as well.  I'm guessing not.

The second issue is that I can't seem to get this to work using Firefox.  So, I use Internet Explorer to watch the games.

Pros: Great quality, no connection issues.
Cons: Geo-restrictions, Internet Explorer only.

MyP2P.eu

If you don't live in Japan or you want to check out the geo-restricted games check out this great site.  They offer all kinds of sports streams for your viewing pleasure.  Additional software may be required, depending on the stream.  As the website title suggests, these streams run using peer to peer technology.  In a nutshell, the more people that watch the more stable the stream will be.

Pros: No geo-restrictions.
Cons: Variable quality and connection issues, 3rd party software required, probably illegal.

ATDHE.net

Similar to MyP2P.eu, this site also offers many live sports programs.  The NPB offerings can be quite sporadic however.  The good thing is that no other software is required, as most of the streams come from popular sites such as Justin.tv and UStream.com.  Justin.tv have recently introduced a form of geo-restrictions however, limiting the number of viewers from a single country.

Pros: No software required.
Cons: Average to poor quality, geo-restrictions (Justin.tv), limited offerings.