In response to an unseen cue, the trumpets are raised in unison and blare out a brassy battle cry. As one, the visiting team's supporters in the packed bleachers come to their feet and pound together plastic batons bearing the Chunichi Dragons logo above their heads. A man in a happi festival coat in the club colours heaves a huge flag into the early evening sky.
It's another noisy and colourful day out for the family at a match in Japan's professional baseball league - but maybe not for much longer.
Concerned that organised crime groups are infiltrating ball parks across Japan, the Pro Baseball Owners' Association has decided to require that from the start of next season, in April, members of the most die-hard fan groups - known as oendan or 'cheering squads' - will need a permit to urge their team on from the stands. Anyone who is too noisy runs the risk of being ejected from the ground.
'I'd not heard about the new rules,' admits a surprised Yukio Ueshima, a restaurant owner and long-time Yokohama Bay Stars fan. 'How will they enforce them?'
Out on the diamond, the Yokohama pitcher has just dismissed the third batsman for the Nagoya-based Dragons and Ueshima's attention is distracted as he claps and yells at the Bay Stars players to gambatte, or 'give it your best shot'. He might not be allowed to get so raucous in eight months' time.
Ueshima is sitting in the more expensive seats at the Bay Stars' stadium, among younger fans who dream of catching a fly ball and season-ticket holders sipping cold beer, and it is very unlikely that a problem will crop up here. The new rules, while they will apply throughout the ground, are clearly aimed at the gangsters in the cheaper sections of the ground.
