Japanese high school game spans four days and 50 innings | Big League Stew - Yahoo Sports

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKSQ-SbvZr0

第59回軟式高校野球 中京vs崇徳の準決勝“50回”決着の瞬間

Extra Innings is a sign of bad umpiring - said every umpire who has ever umpired

今までumpiredたすべての審判 - 延長戦は悪いumpiringのサインです

That means this game had really, really really bad umpiring.

from Yahoo Sports:

Japanese high school game spans four days and 50 innings | Big League Stew - Yahoo Sports:

In a pitching duel to end all pitching duels, Chukyo High School and Sotoku High School were held scoreless for days — literally — during a semifinal matchup at the 59th National High School Rubber Baseball Tournament in Japan. It wasn't until the 50th inning — which took place on Sunday morning, four days after the game had started — that Chukyo finally broke through for three runs. Fortunately for them, and pretty much everyone involved, that would hold up, allowing them to advance to the finals later on Sunday. 

Amazingly and ridiculously, both starting pitchers went the distance during the marathon. Chukyo starting pitcher Taiga Matsui threw 709 pitches and allowed 26 hits over his 50 innings.  “This game was the physically hardest ever for me," Matsui said after the semifinal game. "But I showed my (fighting) spirit. As my teammates scored three runs (in the 50th inning), I was able to throw in a relaxed manner in the bottom of the inning. Ishioka was a good rival for me.” 

His counterpart, Jukiya Ishioka of Sotoku, totaled 689 pitches and allowed 22 hits. Ishioka said, “Though I was beaten in the end, it was a good experience for me to pitch until the last. I had fatigue not only today (Aug. 31) but also yesterday and the day before yesterday. But I asked our coach to use me as a starter today.”

'via Blog this'

I don't even know what this says about the American fixation with pitch counts. We say that we have a warrior mentality but in the Japanese culture, they live it. These guys were literally willing to "Come back with your shield - or on it".

私も、これはピッチカウントを持つアメリカの固定について言うのか分からない。私たちは、戦士の精神を持っていますが、日本文化に、彼らはそれを生きると言う。これらの人は、文字通り" - またはそれを盾に戻ってきて」に喜んでいた。

Perhaps some residual to the samurai warrior mentality detailed here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/japan_no_surrender_01.shtml

the end of hostilities

When Emperor Hirohito made his first ever broadcast to the Japanese people on 15 August 1945, and enjoined his subjects 'to endure the unendurable and bear the unbearable', he brought to an end a state of war - both declared and undeclared - that had wracked his country for 14 years.

......

 Japan's samurai heritage and the samurai code of ethics known as 'bushido' have a seductive appeal when searching for explanations for the wartime image of no surrender. The great classic of Bushido - 'Hagakure' written in the early 18th century - begins with the words, 'Bushido is a way of dying'. Its basic thesis is that only a samurai prepared and willing to die at any moment can devote himself fully to his lord.