Last month, Japan’s baseball players’ union voted against participating in the World Baseball Classic; the issue was their desire for a bigger cut of tournament revenue.

Negotiations are continuing, but they are not going well, according to Nikkan Sports. If you click on that link, you will find it’s in Japanese. Patrick Newman sums it up succinctly:

Japan’s participation in the 2013 continues to look uncertain.JPN wants a bigger piece of the pie, WBC Inc won’t budge. nikkansports.com/baseball/news/…

— Patrick Newman (@npbtracker) August 13, 2012

While that sums it up, this gives me a chance to post a portion of the Google Translate version of the Japanese article:

Jim Small, vice president of MLB Asia is “going so far as to change the condition is not,” and made it clear that you do not participate in the review of conditions.

NPB side, we offer a review of conditions, such as participation, including the attribution of rights and other sponsors of the representative of the Japan players seek. Shimada representative said “does not change the fact that the severe. For detailed content can not say” and.

Well, you get the idea. There’s still quite a bit of time, but “won’t budge” doesn’t sound promising.