The Japan Series was not the only thing the Hanshin Tigers won this year, with ¡°A.R.E¡± ¡ª based on the Japanese word ¡°are,¡± meaning ¡°that¡± ¡ª crowned buzzword of the year, after team manager Akinobu Okada popularized the term as an indirect reference to victory.
¡°Are¡± began being used to avoid saying ¡°win¡± out loud in an effort to not jinx the team¡¯s chances of winning the league championship. It later morphed into A.R.E., an acronym that became the team¡¯s slogan for the year, standing for Aim, Respect and Empower. It appeared to work its magic, with the team, the subject of a supposed KFC-related curse, winning its first Japan Series in 38 years.
¡°Baseball is a team sport so you can¡¯t do it alone ¡ª by continuing to win games thanks to everyone¡¯s effort, in Kansai, newspapers and media would introduce the term ¡®are¡¯ every single day, leading to a way bigger response than I ever imagined,¡± Okada said. ¡°It really hyped up Kansai and the sports industry as a whole ¡ª I¡¯m glad to have been able to contribute even a little to that.¡±
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