Palau Baseball Team Win Gold Medal at the 2025 Pacific Mini Games

On the last Pacific Mini Games held in the Northern Marianas Islands in 2022, Palau placed third behind Northern Marianas Islands and Guam.
On July 7, during the Pacific Mini Games baseball finals competition, Palau National Team won 8-1.
In this year’s tournament, the Palau National Team defeated the Northern Marianas Island, defending champion, in the final game of the preliminary round to advance to the finals, and in the final game, they defeated Guam, who had lost in the preliminary round.

Baseball was brought and introduced from Japan, 100 years ago, and in the local language, baseball is known as “IAKIU” and is the most popular sport in Palau.

It was a very joyous moment for Mr. ARAI Yoshiaki, JICA Volunteer (JOCV), who have been training hard together with the team to win the gold medal, which was a first for Palau.

The first JOCV dispatched to Palau in 1997 was a baseball coach. Mr. SATO Tadayuki contributed to the Palau National Baseball Team’s brilliant performance at the Micronesian Games and Pacific Games, both in 1998, in which he coached the team to gold and bronze medal, respectively.
The second JOCV dispatched to Palau in 2015 was also a baseball coach who worked on improving coaching skills and organizing youth baseball classes.
The current JOCV for baseball Mr. ARAI will end his term on July 22^nd and his successor will be arriving to Palau at the end of the year. JICA will continue to contribute to baseball in Palau.