Yoro Town, Gifu Prefecture, where a factory that manufactures bats for professional baseball players is located, has started accepting applications for the model bat of professional baseball player Munetaka Murakami of Yakult, who represented Japan in the WBC = World Baseball Classic, ahead of schedule due to an increase in inquiries as a gift in return for hometown tax payments.

Yoro Town has a factory for a sporting goods manufacturer that has manufactured bats for players who played in professional baseball and the big leagues, including Ichiro and Hideki Matsui.

Before the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the factory, Yoro Town and the manufacturer added the bats of the players' models made at the factory to the return goods for the hometown tax payment last year.

In particular, Murakami's model bat is popular, and while requests have been received as a gift since last year, inquiries have increased further in line with Murakami's performance at the WBC this month.

For this reason, Yoro Town has brought forward the start of acceptance from the beginning of next month to 30 days.

The Murakami model bat can be selected as a gift in return by those who have completed the procedure to donate 11,<> yen or more through the town's website or the hometown tax intermediary site.

According to the manufacturer, the return bat remains the same weight and length as the one used by Murakami, and the symbol mark of Yoromachi is engraved on the grip end.

Saki Haneda of the Planning and Finance Division of the Yoro Town Hall said, "We have received many inquiries from the first day, and we would like to convey the goodness of Yoro Town to everyone through this bat."