Japanese League/Team Historical Composition

[Chadwick]

Curious what the professional or "major" Japanese leagues' years of existence are and their team composition during those years.

An example of the information I'm looking for:
American League
1901-1960 (8 teams)
1961-1968 (10 teams)
1969-1976 (12 teams)
1977-present (14 teams)

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Rats, I have a Japanese baseball handbook that summarizes every Japanese season through the early 2000s with final standings, league leaders, award winners, playoff summaries, etc. But I have it in storage. If you don't get an answer by this weekend I'll look for the book.

[Brian McKenna]

single Japanese Lg - 1936 to 1949 (1936-38 the league was divided into a spring and fall league)(no 1945 season)

Japanese Central League, 1950 to present
Japanese Pacific League, 1950 to present

Check out japanesebaseball.com

[jalbright]

Try these two pages from baseballguru.com:

franchise histories and

league standings

A note: in 1937 and 1938, there were Spring ("S") and Fall ("F") leagues. The second link is to an Excel Spreadsheet.

Hopefully, this helps.