History of Japanese players who moved from Nippon Pro Baseball to MLB

In May 8, 2001, Boston Red Sox right-hander Hideo Nomo and Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki faced each other in Fenway Park. (AFP PHOTO/JOHN MOTTERN)

Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci has a very interesting piece on his “Inside Baseball” column. Lack of success by Japanese stars opens debate about next wave:

…How players from NPB translate to the majors — as well as putting an economic value on that bet — figures to once again be a key part of baseball’s free agent season this year. A half dozen or more players from Japan will be available to major league clubs either as free agents or through the posting system in which a player’s negotiating rights are put up for a blind auction. The standout of the crop is expected to be 25-year-old Nippon Ham Fighters righthander Yu Darvish, if indeed his club makes him available through the posting process.

Said Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine, “The anecdotal assessment suggests starting pitchers have a two-year window of success followed by a rapid decline, followed thereafter by disappearance. Even a lot of the relievers have had success quickly, reaching a hot peak followed by a rapid decline.”

It has been 16 years since Hideo Nomo debuted in the major leagues, touching off the first generation of players who wanted to leave Nippon Pro Baseball for the majors. Forty-three players have followed Nomo’s route. Only three have been named to more than one All-Star team (Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and Kaz Sasaski) and only 11 are active big leaguers, including Minnesota Twins infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka, a .226 hitter with no home runs who became the latest of several players to struggle with the transition.
…
Including Nomo, since 1995 there have been nine pitchers from NPB that have made 40 starts in the big leagues. Except for Hiroki Kuroda (3.45), a free-agent who has pitched all four of his major league seasons for the Dodgers, they have posted career ERAs between 4.24 and 5.72 — and that doesn’t include busts such as Kei Igawa and Junichi Tazawa who have not made that many starts.

You can see the complete article here. I’ve posted list of Japanese players who were selected for All-Star games (there are total of 8 players), but I thought this may be a good place to list ALL Japanese players who experienced NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) and then played for MLB teams, here. Organized by debute dates.

MLB Debute in 1995 (1)

1. Hideo Nomo, May 2nd

MLB Debute in 1997 (3)

2. Shigetoshi Hasegawa, April 5th
3. Takashi Kashiwada, May 1st
4. Hideki Irabu, July 10th

MLB Debute in 1998 (1)

5. Masato Yoshii, April 5th

MLB Debute in 1999 (2)

6. Masao Kida, April 5th
7. Tomo Ohka, July 19th

MLB Debute in 2000 (1)

8. Kazuhiro Sasaki, April 5th

MLB Debute in 2001 (2)

9. Ichiro Suzuki, April 2nd
10. Tsuyoshi Shinjo, April 3rd

MLB Debute in 2002 (4)

11. Takahito Nomura, April 3rd
12. Satoru Komiyama, April 4th
13. Kazuhisa Ishii, April 6th
14. So Taguchi, June 10th

MLB Debute in 2003 (1)

15. Hideki Matsui, March 31st

MLB Debute in 2004 (3)

16. Kazuo Matsui, April 6th
17. Akinori Otsuka, April 6th
18. Shingo Takatsu, April 9th

MLB Debute in 2005 (3)

19. Tadahito Iguchi, April 4th
20. Keiichi Yabu, April 9th
21. Norihiro Nakamura, April 10th

MLB Debute in 2006 (2)

22. Kenji Johjima, April 3rd
23. Takashi Saito, April 9th

MLB Debute in 2007 (5)

24. Akinori Iwamura, April 2nd
25. Hideki Okajima, April 2nd
26. Daisuke Matsuzaka, April 5th
27. Kei Igawa, April 7th
28. Masumi Kuwata, June 10th

MLB Debute in 2008 (5)

29. Kazuo Fukumori, March 31;
30. Kosuke Fukudome, March 31;
31. Masahide Kobayashi, April 2;
32. Hiroki Kuroda, April 4;
33. Yasuhiko Yabuta, April 5;

MLB Debute in 2009 (3)

34. Koji Uehara, April 8
35. Kenshin Kawakami, April 11
36. Ken Takahashi, May 2

MLB Debute in 2010 (2)

37. Hisanori Kobayashi, April 7
38. Ryota Igarashi, April 8

MLB Debute in 2011 (2)

39. Tsuyoshi Nishioka, April 1
40. Yoshinori Tateyama, May 24

—

Also noteworthy are Japanese players played in MLB, but did not have experience playing in Nippon Pro Baseball prior to their signing with the teams in U.S. There are five such players.

MLB Debute in 1964

1. Masanori Murakami, September 1st

MLB Debute in 1996

2. Mac Suzuki, July 7th

MLB Debute in 2003

3. Micheal Nakamura, June 7th

*Was born in Nara, but Australian

MLB Debute in 2004

4. Kazuhito Tadano, April 27th

MLB Debute in 2009

5. Junichi Tazawa, August 7