NPB Farm Leagues

An NPB Farm League is a league that consists of reserve teams or ni-gun of Nippon Pro Baseball. There are currently 12 farm teams, divided between two leagues, the Eastern League and the Western League. Unlike the minor league system in North America, the farm team is the only level within the NPB, other than the top team. Most teams are not independently owned and share their name and uniform style with their parent club. In 2000, both the Yokohama BayStars and the Orix BlueWave sold the naming rights to their farm teams. The two teams became the Shonan SeaRex and Surpass Kobe, respectively. In late 2004, the Seibu Lions sold the sponsorship rights of their ni-gun team to Invoice for three years. By 2011, all three teams had returned to using their parent clubs' names.