Tokyo, Nov. 5 (Jiji Press)–Jiji Press Ltd. said Thursday that an employee had collected baseballs at spring training camps of four Japanese professional baseball teams and sold them on an online marketplace website. In February this year, the male employee in his 20s, who was then assigned to the news agency’s Osaka bureau in western Japan, collected practice balls without the teams’ permission at the spring training camps of the Hanshin Tigers, Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Yokohama DeNA BayStars and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan’s southernmost prefecture, the company said. The employee, currently a member of the Photo Desk of the News Media Center at Jiji Press’ News Department, listed them on the online marketplace and sold 54 balls for a total of 50,940 yen. He also sold hats distributed to members of the media covering the four teams. Jiji Press reported the incident to the four teams and the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization and apologized. The employee admitted the misconduct in an internal investigation. The company has placed him on standby at home and said it would take strict measures in accordance with its employment rules. “This conduct is absolutely unacceptable for anyone involved in journalism,” Jiji Press President Katsuhiko Sakai said. “We deeply apologize for causing considerable inconvenience to the four teams and others involved in professional baseball.” Sakai said the company takes the incident extremely seriously and intends to take strict action, including clarifying supervisory responsibility. “We will further strengthen our training for employees on journalistic ethics and legal compliance, and make every effort to prevent a recurrence,” he said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
