Little League Laps Up Kanga Clout

Kangaroos play a prominent role in encouraging kids to take up baseball in the Aichi Prefecture city of Kota.

Kosuke the Kangaroo is the marsupial mascot of the Aichi Kota Boys youth baseball club that runs age-group squads including its Kangaroo Kids for first and second graders new to the game.

The club has been around since 2009 but has not given a public explanation for why it chose the kangaroo as the animal to promote its game. It’s possibly because youth teams often pick animal names to sound friendly and energising.

A kangaroo fits a young-players programme because it suggests bouncy energy, protection and youthfulness — easy, family-friendly branding that appeals to parents and kids.

That reasoning fits the club’s public emphasis on fun, development and community.

Enthusiasm for kangaroos can sometimes get lost in translation….

Australian marsupials seem to play an inordinately prominent public role in Aichi Prefecture for some weird reason. The prefecture’s most visible professional sporting team, the Chunichi Dragons, ended up being represented by Doala the koala (long story for another day) and home to an unsuccessful stint by one of Australia’s most decorated baseball players Dave Nilsson who used the name Dingo when playing in Japan, as well as the prefectural dental association uses kangaroo mascots, to give some examples.

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