Hanshin Koshien Stadium , commonly referred to as simply Koshien Stadium, is a baseball stadium located near Kobe in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The stadium was built to host the national high school baseball tournaments, and opened on 1 August 1924 – the name Kōshien (甲子園) comes from said year rendered as the first pairing in the sexagenary cycle system i.e. kōshi (甲子) or Wood Rat. It was the largest stadium in Asia at the time it was completed, with a capacity of 55,000.