Tsubakuro

Tsubakuro (つば九郎), or Tsuba-kun, is the main mascot for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. He is a swallow. He has a younger sister named Tsubami. He currently has a feud with the Orix Buffaloes mascots, Buffalo Bull and Buffalo Bell. He also is friends with Doala. A running publicity stunt that Tsubakuro does is that he "declared free agency" at the end of the season. He began doing this in 2009, and has done this since. The most recent time Tsubakuro did this was in 2021, with Doala as his agent. His new deal gave him an annual salary of 50,000 yen and all-you-can-drink Yakult. Tsubakuro is also regarded as one of the most well known and popular mascots in NPB.

Team Information - History
The Tokyo Yakult Swallows are a professional baseball team in Japan's Central League. The Swallows are named after their corporate owners, the Yakult Corporation. From 1950 to 1965, the team was owned by the former Japanese National Railways (Kokutetsu (国鉄) and called the Kokutetsu Swallows; the team was then owned by the newspaper Sankei Shimbun from 1965 to 1968 and called the Sankei Atoms. Yakult purchased the team in 1970 and restored its original Swallows name in 1974. Then it was renamed the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2006.