Daisuke Matsuzaka

Opening Day is still about four months away, but the local-newspaper battle to cover Daisuke Matsuzaka for a Japanese audience has commenced in earnest. Last month, a few days before Christmas, the Herald revealed that “select . . . stories and columns” relating to the Red Sox’ $52-million-dollar man would be reprinted in Japanese on the paper’s Web site. (Readers simply need to click the Japanese-flag icon!) Not to be outdone, on December 28, Globe affiliate Boston.com announced a content-sharing arrangement wherein excerpts of Sox coverage from the paper, from Boston.com, and from the Boston Dirt Dogs site (BostonDirtDogs.com) would be reprinted in Japanese at Go-RedSox.com, a three-year-old site operated by Japanese journalist and Globe graphic designer Daigo Fujiwara. “This is no mere translation service,” Boston.com editor David Beard bragged in a press release, without explaining why it isn’t.

In fact, even though sportswriter Gordon Edes will be writing a semi-monthly column for Japan’s Sankei Daily Sports, the Globe’s early advantage here may not be as great as it sounds. After all, Boston.com is primarily a portal for Globe content, and BostonDirtDogs.com is a Boston.com endeavor (though one unconnected with the Globe’s sports desk.) Also, while this observation comes with a big disclaimer — i.e., I can’t read Japanese — Go-RedSox.com doesn’t look very user-friendly just yet. (Among other things, there’s a striking lack of graphics.) On the other hand, Japanese readers will have to start at an English-language Web page to get their Herald content — a minor annoyance, but still.

Once the season starts and Japanese audiences actually have something to read about, we’ll have a better sense of which of the dailies is winning the fight. The smart money’s probably on the Globe, given the vast staffing superiority Morrissey Boulevard currently has over Herald Square. But if the congenitally competitive Herald decides to make an example of the Globe in this particular area, that could change. Whatever happens, the Globe-Herald rivalry has yet another iteration worth watching.