May 22 (Bloomberg) -- You know you have made it in Japan when you have a street, a beer and a burger named after you.

Baseball-team manager Bobby Valentine has all these and something even more extraordinary: The passionate support of tens of thousands of fans trying to stop team owners from axing him. Fans of the Chiba Lotte Marines are demanding that it reverse a decision to drop Valentine after this season.

This really is one of those only-in-Japan moments. By almost all accounts, Valentine, 59, is the kind of manager you want running a team. The only man ever to manage in both the World Series and Japan Series (and the only foreign manager to win it) is a hit with fans and a keen filler of stadium seats. Team revenue has surged since he took charge in 2004.

Valentine’s predicament says more about the state of Japan’s economy than meets the eye. Here are three ways in which this tiff offers lessons for why Japan isn’t growing faster.

One, “old Japan” holds back “new Japan.” The official reason Valentine isn’t being retained is his $3.9 million annual salary at a time of grave economic turmoil. Fans, though, sense something bigger at play. Valentine is an outspoken critic of Japan’s baseball system and a thorn in the side of those favoring the status quo.

Valentine for years has been after baseball owners to raise salaries to reverse the trend of stars like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui leaving for the U.S. He also has worked to eliminate boundaries separating players, fans and himself, further endearing himself to the masses.

Japanese Microcosm

It’s a microcosm of the difficulty Japan is having revamping its recession-prone economy. It shrank at a record 15.2 percent annual pace last quarter as exports collapsed and consumers and businesses cut spending.

The global recession gets most of the blame. The forces of old Japan, both in the government and private sectors, also explain why the economy isn’t holding up better.

Banks, for example, avoided the toxic debt that infected peers in the U.S. and Europe. That didn’t stop them from loading up on stocks via cross-shareholdings in friendly companies. The prevalence of takeover defenses and poison pills also is limiting foreign investment at a time when Japan needs it.

Japanese baseball can seem overly formulaic and rule-bound to foreigners. Then again, so can Japanese business. It’s often more about bunting than swinging away.

People Matter

Two, the people matter. One reason the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in September is likely to lose power for only the second time since 1955 is that it ignored the priorities of Japan’s 127 million people. Politicians’ we-always-know-what-is- best-for-you mindset is alienating voters and making elected officials more change-averse than usual.

It’s not unlike where fans of the Chiba Lotte Marines find themselves. More than 50,000 signatures on a petition to keep Valentine have gone unheeded. Comments from the front office left fans feeling like mere seat warmers rather than coveted customers.

Three, change is a good thing. Japanese baseball is a decidedly clubby affair, something amply demonstrated by the events of 2004. Internet entrepreneur Takafumi Horie, then a high-flying 32-year-old, wanted to set up a new baseball team or buy the financially fragile Kintetsu Buffaloes. Horie planned to sell shares of the team to the public -- a first in Japan -- and tie its image to its home city, Osaka, rather than a company to boost the television audience.

Tired Model

Horie’s attempt to reform a tired baseball model was rebuffed. You would think any effort to buy an endangered team, revitalize it and even make money would be embraced. Ditto for Valentine’s efforts to lead his team, and sport in Japan, onto a more dynamic path. He, too, is being blown off.

Valentine’s success in Japan has garnered considerable attention in the U.S. In 2008, a documentary on the former New York Mets and Texas Rangers manager, “The Zen of Bobby V,” played at the Tribeca Film Festival. It depicted how Valentine had become legend in Japanese baseball. He will have little trouble finding employment back home after this season.

Baseball’s role in Japan is underappreciated. Fans are often more fanatical than those in America. They are more like soccer fans. They are deeply devoted to their teams, often traveling to see them play and engaging in synchronized chants.

The flavor of the game on the field also differs from U.S baseball. Team unity and discipline take precedence over personal flair or swing-for-the-fences heroics. The sport’s parallels to Japanese society inspired Robert Whiting’s excellent 1989 book, “You Gotta Have Wa.”

Whiting wrote: “Introduced to a people whose very identities were rooted in the group, but who, oddly enough, had no group sport of their own -- only one-on-one competitions like kendo and sumo -- baseball provided the Japanese with an opportunity to express their renowned group proclivities on an athletic field.”

Now, the sport is offering insights into the business world. Like its baseball system, Japan’s economy needs a change in mindset and playbooks. Otherwise, it won’t win many growth contests in the future.

(William Pesek is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: William Pesek in Tokyo at wpesek@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 21, 2009 18:01 EDT