tournaments. An Israel team played in the Qualifying Round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic, which was held in September 2012. Israel narrowly missed qualifying for the WBC after being defeated by Spain. In April 2013, Israel was the runner up at the PONY European baseball championships in Prague, Czech Republic for the 16 and under age bracket. In 1986, the Israel Association of Baseball (IAB) was formed as a non-profit organization for the development and promotion of baseball throughout Israel and in all sections of the population. The IAB is recognized by all the official Israeli sports bodies and by official international sports bodies such as the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB), the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and Major League Baseball International (MLBI), as the governing body of baseball in Israel. The IAB is active in all areas of baseball in Israel including running the leagues and summer camp programs; training coaches and umpires; introducing baseball to schools and community centers; working to strengthen ties with communities worldwide; working with municipalities to improve the infrastructure for baseball; and more. In January 2017, Israel qualified for the first time for the World Baseball Classic, and in February defeated former runner-up South Korea in the opening round. Japan Baseball was introduced in Japan in 1872 and is currently among the country's most popular sports. The first professional competitions emerged in the 1920s. The current league, Nippon Professional Baseball, consists of two leagues of 6 teams each. The country's national team has also been successful, having won two Olympic medals (bronze and silver), while the World Championships team never placed worse than 5th in its 13 appearances, winning second place once and third place three times. Recently, several Japanese players have also entered the U.S. major leagues, such as Hideo Nomo, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Kazuo Matsui, Tadahito Iguchi, Kenji Johjima, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yu Darvish, and Masahiro Tanaka. Japan defeated Korea to become champions of the second World Baseball Classic on March 23, 2009, in Los Angeles. Philippines Baseball was introduced in the Philippines shortly after the start of American rule in 1898. In 1954, the Philippines won the first Asian Baseball Championship, its only victory. Since the 1960s, it has struggled to keep up with Japanese, South Korean, and Taiwanese teams, though it has remained high in the World Baseball Classic rankings compared to other Asian countries. In 2005,