The is a

baseball field A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...

, located in Chūō-ku,

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since anc ...

, Japan. Built in 1993, the stadium was originally named and has the capacity of 38,585 seats. With a diameter of 216 meters, the Fukuoka PayPay Dome is the world's largest geodesic dome. This is Japan's first stadium built with a

retractable roof A retractable roof is a roof system designed to roll back the roof of a structure so that the interior of the facility is open to the outdoors. Retractable roofs are sometimes referred to as operable roofs or retractable skylights. The term op ...

. In 2005,

Yahoo! JAPAN is a Japanese internet company originally formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! (later divested by Verizon into Altaba) and the Japanese company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Kioi Tower in the Tokyo Garden Te ...

, one of

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...

's subsidiaries, acquired the stadium's

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

, and thus renamed it or abbreviated as , In January 2013, it was renamed to . Yafuoku is the abbreviation for Yahoo! Auctions in Japan. On October 30, 2019, it was announced that the stadium was going to be named Fukuoka PayPay Dome, in reference to the payment system

PayPay PayPay Corporation is a Japanese company that develops electronic payment services. It was established in 2018 as a joint venture between the SoftBank Group and Yahoo Japan through Z Holdings, their holding company. With 38 million users, PayPay ...

owned by Softbank (50%) and Yahoo Japan (25%), from February 29, 2020. It is one of the few NPB stadiums with onsite hotels.

History

Fukuoka Dome is the home stadium of

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...

and, together with Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk Hotel, is part of the Hawks Town entertainment complex. It is located near Momochi Beach, about 15 minutes walk from Tojinmachi subway station. In 2006, the stadium received an upgrade to its mono-color main scoreboard "Hawks Vision." Sharing the same nickname as its predecessor and measured at 10 m (32.76 ft) high and 53 m (173.86 ft) wide, it was one of the largest high-definition electronic scoreboards at the time, equivalent to a 2,123-inch wide-screen display. In 2010, with further addition of two 5.7 m (120.65 ft) × 33 m (108.27 ft) displays, the stadium boasted the largest total viewing area of HD display in all baseball stadia (total area 905.2sqm or 9,743.49sqft). The Fukuoka Dome has hosted one game in each Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series since its creation, including the final game of the 2006 series, where Japan was swept for the first time in the history of the event. MLB completes sweep with walk-off In the TV series ''

Extreme Engineering ''Extreme Engineering'' is a documentary television series that aired on the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. The program featured futuristic and ongoing engineering projects. After ending of season 3 it airs under the ''Build It Bi ...

'', Danny Forster makes a reference to the Fukuoka Dome, saying it was said to have a "floating" field. (An indoor baseball stadium in Japan which actually has a floating field is

Sapporo Dome is a stadium located in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, and is primarily used for baseball and association football. It is the home field of the association football club Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo, and was also home to the baseball team Hokkaido Ni ...

, which also hosts football games for

Consadole Sapporo is a Japanese professional football club, which plays in the J1 League. The team is based in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido. The club name of "Consadole" is made from ''consado'', a reverse of the Japanese word and the Spanish express ...

, a J. League club. However, this stadium does not have such a field.) In 2009, the older, short-pile AstroTurf field was replaced with the more modern grass-like FieldTurf brand surface to reduce injuries; the Hawks players had seen far more injuries than any other team in Japan prior to the field being replaced.

Notable events

NPB

On May 18, 1994,

Hiromi Makihara Hiromi Makihara (born August 11, 1963) is a former Nippon Professional Baseball pitcher. He was a six-time Central League All-Star, won Rookie of the Year honors, and pitched a perfect game in a 19-year career with the Yomiuri Giants The ...

of the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

threw a

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

against Hiroshima Toyo Carp as the Giants won 6–0. Makihara's first Perfect-game at Fukuoka Dome is of special note as it being the only one thrown there, as well as the last one in the NPB (15th overall) until Rōki Sasaki pitched a perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes on April 10th, 2022 at ZOZO Marine Stadium.

Concerts

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

performed at the stadium four times during his solo career. The first two times, Jackson performed two sold-out concerts during his ''

Dangerous World Tour The Dangerous World Tour was the second world concert tour by American singer Michael Jackson to promote his eighth studio album '' Dangerous.'' The tour was sponsored by Pepsi-Cola. All profits were donated to various charities including Jack ...

'', on September 10 & 11, 1993, for a total audience of 70,000 fans (35,000 per show). The second and last two times were in 1996, during his subsequent tour, ''

HIStory World Tour The ''HIS''tory World Tour was the third and final worldwide solo concert tour by American singer and recording artist Michael Jackson, covering Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and North America. The tour included a total of 82 concerts spanning ...

'', on December 26 and 28, also on two sold-out concerts for 80,000 people (40,000 fans per show).

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed " The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston i ...

performed at the stadium on September 22, 1993 during The Bodyguard World Tour. Madonna performed three times at the stadium. The shows happened on 7, 8, and 9 December 1993 during

The Girlie Show World Tour The Girlie Show was the fourth concert tour by American singer and songwriter Madonna, in support of her fifth studio album, '' Erotica'' (1992). In October 1992, Madonna simultaneously released ''Erotica'' and the coffee table book ''Sex''. Th ...

. The stadium also hosted Frank Sinatra's final public concerts on 19 and 20 December 1994. The Rolling Stones played two concerts at the dome during their Voodoo Lounge Tour on 22 and 23 March 1995. Bon Jovi played a concert at the dome on May 13, 1995 during their These Days Tour. On September 18 and 19, 2000, the stadium hosted

L'Arc~en~Ciel L'Arc-en-Ciel (French: 'The Rainbow', stylized as L'Arc~en~Ciel), also known as Laruku, is a Japanese rock band, formed in Osaka in 1991 by bassist tetsuya and vocalist hyde. Following the departure of original members hiro and pero, guitaris ...

as part of their "TOUR 2000 REAL".

Mariko Shinoda is a Japanese singer, actress, fashion model, and former member of the Japanese idol group AKB48, in which she was the captain of Team A. Career In October 2005, she auditioned for AKB48's first generation roster but failed the audition. Shor ...

held her graduation concert at the stadium on July 21st, 2013 as part of the AKB48 5 Big Dome Concert Tour, "AKB48 2013 Manatsu no Dome Tour ~Mada mada, Yaranakya Ikenai koto ga aru~ (AKB48・2013真夏のドームツアー～まだまだ、やらなきゃいけないことがある～)" that summer. Super Junior performed their Super Show 6 at the stadium on 20 December 2014 as part of their sixth world tour, with a sold-out crowd of 47,874 people.

Blackpink Blackpink (, commonly stylized in all caps or as BLɅϽKPIИK) is a South Korean girl group formed by YG Entertainment, consisting of members Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa. The group debuted in August 2016 with their single album '' Square ...

had a sold-out concert at the stadium on 22 February 2020 as part of their In Your Area Tour.

TVXQ TVXQ (stylized as TVXQ!), an initialism for Tong Vfang Xien Qi (), is a South Korean male pop duo consisting of U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin. They are known as in Japanese releases, and are sometimes referred to as DBSK, an abbreviation of ...

Their Japanese name is

Tohoshinki TVXQ (stylized as TVXQ!), an initialism for Tong Vfang Xien Qi (), is a South Korean male pop duo consisting of U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin. They are known as in Japanese releases, and are sometimes referred to as DBSK, an abbreviation of t ...

had solo concerts in Fukuoka PayPay Dome for 9 days.

Perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

performed a show at the stadium for their First Nationwide Major Dome tour, 'P Cubed'.

Professional wrestling

From the 1990s new Japan pro wrestling has been doing their wrestling dontaku shows in the may month till wrestling dontaku 2001. In 2022 as a part of celebrating the 50th year anniversary of the promotion NJPW returned to this venue for wrestling dontaku 2022.

References

External links

Stadium page on Softbank Hawks official website
(in Japanese) {{2013 World Baseball Classic Stadiums Retractable-roof stadiums in Japan Baseball venues in Japan Sports venues completed in 1993 Buildings and structures in Fukuoka Tourist attractions in Fukuoka Sports venues in Fukuoka Prefecture 1993 establishments in Japan Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks World Baseball Classic venues