Birthplaces · Asia · 2015–2026
🇯🇵MLB Players from Japan
Every major leaguer born in Japan who took a plate appearance or threw a pitch in a published season, with what they have done since 2015 — and who is playing now.
- Players
- 36 2015–2026
- Active in 2026
- 14
- Total dbWAR
- 169.2
- Home runs
- 559
- Strikeouts
- 8,184 7,987.1 IP
- Batters / pitchers
- 11 / 25
Notable
Superlatives over the seasons published here, not over whole careers.
Shohei Ohtani2018–2026Most home runs310Shohei Ohtani4,925 PAMost strikeouts1,395
Yu Darvish1,232.2 IPBest season9.6 WARShohei Ohtani2024First to the majors2001
Ichiro SuzukiHardest-hit ball120.0 mphShohei Ohtani2025Youngest in 202625
Roki SasakiMost seasons here10Yu Darvish2016–2025The All-Japanese Team
The best player born in Japan at each position since 2015, by the dbWAR he produced there. Positions nobody has filled are left open.
Munetaka Murakami2.5dbWAR
Kazuma Okamoto3.0dbWAR
Norichika Aoki3.5dbWARCF
Shogo Akiyama-0.5dbWARRF
Seiya Suzuki12.6dbWARDHShohei Ohtani42.0dbWARAnd on the mound
How this is picked. Each player is filed at the one position he appeared at most often — so a shortstop who spent two years at third is a shortstop, and cannot hold both slots — and the spot goes to whoever produced the most dbWAR there. The figure on a card is therefore the value at that position rather than the career total shown elsewhere on this page: they differ for anyone who moved. Starting and relieving are counted separately for the same reason, on the share of each season's appearances that were starts. A slot needs 100 plate appearances or 20 innings to be claimed at all, which keeps a September call-up from becoming a first baseman. 9 position players are eligible here, with 13 starters and 9 relievers.
In the majors now
14 Japanese-born players were on a major-league roster in 2026. Every column sorts.
| Shohei Ohtani | LAD | DH | 32 | 130 | 596 | 30 | 80 | 11 | .277 | .380 | .522 | 146 | 3.8 |
| Seiya Suzuki | CHC | RF | 32 | 137 | 606 | 24 | 84 | 3 | .267 | .366 | .467 | 132 | 3.5 |
| Kazuma Okamoto | TOR | 3B | 30 | 148 | 608 | 33 | 88 | 1 | .237 | .313 | .463 | 114 | 3.0 |
| Munetaka Murakami | CWS | 1B | 26 | 120 | 521 | 32 | 69 | 1 | .203 | .344 | .465 | 124 | 2.5 |
| Masataka Yoshida | BOS | DH | 33 | 87 | 297 | 5 | 28 | 2 | .274 | .347 | .399 | 107 | 0.8 |
| Rikuu Nishida | CWS | RF | 25 | 11 | 30 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .241 | .241 | .241 | 28 | -0.2 |
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | LAD | 28 | 27 | 27 | 179.0 | 14 | 0 | 178 | 2.51 | 3.28 | 0.87 | 4.1 |
| Shohei Ohtani | LAD | 32 | 14 | 14 | 85.2 | 8 | 0 | 95 | 1.79 | 2.61 | 0.95 | 2.6 |
| Shota Imanaga | CHC | 33 | 30 | 30 | 168.1 | 11 | 0 | 164 | 3.80 | 4.54 | 1.10 | 1.4 |
| Yusei Kikuchi | LAA | 35 | 12 | 12 | 57.1 | 1 | 0 | 58 | 5.02 | 4.23 | 1.55 | 0.6 |
| Tatsuya Imai | HOU | 28 | 21 | 15 | 73.2 | 6 | 0 | 92 | 5.13 | 4.43 | 1.48 | 0.5 |
| Roki Sasaki | LAD | 25 | 23 | 23 | 119.1 | 5 | 0 | 117 | 4.60 | 4.87 | 1.33 | 0.5 |
| Yuki Matsui | SD | 31 | 51 | 0 | 61.2 | 3 | 1 | 66 | 1.90 | 4.24 | 1.14 | 0.3 |
| Tomoyuki Sugano | COL | 37 | 27 | 27 | 142.2 | 12 | 0 | 86 | 5.49 | 5.50 | 1.36 | -0.3 |
| Kodai Senga | NYM | 33 | 29 | 8 | 60.0 | 0 | 7 | 73 | 7.05 | 5.75 | 1.60 | -0.6 |
Clubs in 2026LAD 4CHC 2CWS 2LAA 1BOS 1COL 1
The full 2026 leaderboards filter by birthplace too: batting · pitching — pick several countries at once there.
Since 2015
Career totals over the published seasons, ranked by dbWAR.
| Shohei Ohtani | 2018–2026 | 9 | 4,925 | 1,189 | 310 | 749 | 176 | .281 | 57.3 |
| Seiya Suzuki | 2022–2026 | 5 | 2,871 | 675 | 111 | 380 | 39 | .268 | 15.0 |
| Masataka Yoshida | 2023–2026 | 4 | 1,503 | 383 | 34 | 182 | 15 | .280 | 4.4 |
| Norichika Aoki | 2015–2017 | 3 | 1,233 | 313 | 14 | 89 | 31 | .282 | 3.4 |
| Kazuma Okamoto | 2026 | 1 | 608 | 129 | 33 | 88 | 1 | .237 | 3.0 |
| Munetaka Murakami | 2026 | 1 | 521 | 87 | 32 | 69 | 1 | .203 | 2.5 |
| Munenori Kawasaki | 2015–2016 | 2 | 60 | 13 | 0 | 3 | 2 | .265 | 0.3 |
| Shogo Akiyama | 2020–2021 | 2 | 366 | 71 | 0 | 21 | 9 | .224 | -0.0 |
| Rikuu Nishida | 2026 | 1 | 30 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .241 | -0.2 |
| Yoshi Tsutsugo | 2020–2022 | 3 | 640 | 110 | 18 | 75 | 0 | .197 | -0.9 |
| Ichiro Suzuki | 2015–2019 | 5 | 1,071 | 245 | 5 | 63 | 22 | .253 | -1.0 |
| Yu Darvish | 2016–2025 | 10 | 1,232.2 | 76 | 0 | 1,395 | 3.82 | 21.1 |
| Kenta Maeda | 2016–2025 | 9 | 986.2 | 68 | 6 | 1,055 | 4.20 | 14.7 |
| Masahiro Tanaka | 2015–2020 | 6 | 918.0 | 65 | 0 | 850 | 3.88 | 13.1 |
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | 2024–2026 | 3 | 442.2 | 33 | 0 | 484 | 2.60 | 11.4 |
| Yusei Kikuchi | 2019–2026 | 8 | 1,045.1 | 49 | 1 | 1,069 | 4.49 | 9.6 |
| Shota Imanaga | 2024–2026 | 3 | 486.1 | 35 | 0 | 455 | 3.46 | 4.5 |
| Kodai Senga | 2023–2026 | 4 | 345.0 | 20 | 7 | 393 | 3.70 | 4.2 |
| Hisashi Iwakuma | 2015–2017 | 3 | 359.2 | 25 | 0 | 274 | 3.93 | 3.4 |
| Koji Uehara | 2015–2017 | 3 | 130.1 | 7 | 34 | 160 | 3.25 | 2.3 |
| Yoshihisa Hirano | 2018–2020 | 3 | 131.2 | 9 | 8 | 131 | 3.69 | 1.3 |
| Junichi Tazawa | 2015–2018 | 4 | 191.2 | 9 | 3 | 176 | 5.02 | 0.8 |
| Yuki Matsui | 2024–2026 | 3 | 187.2 | 10 | 2 | 196 | 3.21 | 0.6 |
| Tatsuya Imai | 2026 | 1 | 73.2 | 6 | 0 | 92 | 5.13 | 0.5 |
| Roki Sasaki | 2025–2026 | 2 | 155.2 | 6 | 0 | 145 | 4.57 | 0.2 |
| Shintaro Fujinami | 2023 | 1 | 79.0 | 7 | 2 | 83 | 7.18 | 0.2 |
| Hirokazu Sawamura | 2021–2022 | 2 | 103.2 | 6 | 0 | 101 | 3.39 | 0.2 |
| Tsuyoshi Wada | 2015 | 1 | 32.1 | 1 | 0 | 31 | 3.62 | 0.1 |
| Naoyuki Uwasawa | 2024 | 1 | 4.0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2.25 | 0.1 |
| Kazuhisa Makita | 2018 | 1 | 35.0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 5.40 | -0.1 |
| Kyuji Fujikawa | 2015 | 1 | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 16.20 | -0.1 |
| Toru Murata | 2015 | 1 | 3.1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8.10 | -0.2 |
| Shun Yamaguchi | 2020 | 1 | 25.2 | 2 | 0 | 26 | 8.06 | -0.4 |
| Tomoyuki Sugano | 2025–2026 | 2 | 299.2 | 22 | 0 | 192 | 5.05 | -0.5 |
| Shinnosuke Ogasawara | 2025 | 1 | 38.2 | 1 | 0 | 30 | 6.98 | -0.6 |
| Kohei Arihara | 2021–2022 | 2 | 60.2 | 3 | 0 | 38 | 7.57 | -1.1 |
By season
How many were in the majors each year, and what they produced.
| Season | Players | Batters | Pitchers | PA | HR | IP | SO | dbWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 14 | 6 | 9 | 2,658 | 124 | 947.2 | 929 | 22.6 |
| 2025 | 13 | 4 | 11 | 1,584 | 91 | 1,032.1 | 964 | 19.1 |
| 2024 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 1,737 | 85 | 705.0 | 740 | 25.2 |
| 2023 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 1,762 | 79 | 785.2 | 891 | 23.5 |
| 2022 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 1,305 | 50 | 532.0 | 594 | 12.7 |
| 2021 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 1,147 | 54 | 653.2 | 716 | 12.7 |
| 2020 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 543 | 15 | 277.1 | 304 | 6.6 |
| 2019 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 557 | 18 | 729.0 | 724 | 9.9 |
| 2018 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 478 | 22 | 502.1 | 548 | 8.1 |
| 2017 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 657 | 8 | 629.2 | 647 | 8.3 |
| 2016 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 932 | 7 | 771.1 | 740 | 15.4 |
| 2015 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 884 | 6 | 421.0 | 387 | 5.1 |
Where in Japan
Birth cities with more than one major leaguer, most first.
About this page
36 major-league players born in Japan appear in this archive, between 2015 and 2026. 14 of them were on a major-league roster in 2026, up from 10 in 2015. Together they are worth 169.2 dbWAR, on 559 home runs and 8,184 strikeouts thrown.
The most valuable of them by our own measure is Shohei Ohtani, worth 57.3 dbWAR across 2018–2026. His best year was 2024, at 9.6 WAR. Ichiro Suzuki has been in the majors longest of anyone here, since 2001.
Shohei Ohtani has hit the most home runs, 310. Yu Darvish has thrown the most strikeouts, 1,395. The hardest ball anyone from here has struck came off Shohei Ohtani's bat at 120.0 mph, in 2025. These are totals over the seasons published here rather than whole careers: a player who debuted before 2015 arrives mid-career, and his numbers start where the archive does.
Osaka has produced 5 of them, more than anywhere else in Japan. In 2026 they are spread across 6 clubs, 4 of them with Los Angeles Dodgers.
Country here means country of birth, taken from each player's biographical record. It is not nationality and not who a player has represented internationally — the three disagree often enough to matter, and birthplace is the one this data actually holds. Every rate statistic and every dbWAR figure is computed from play-by-play using constants measured from each season's own data, so the numbers are era-correct without being copied from anywhere. See the derivation →
Every birthplace · 2026 batting leaders · 2026 pitching leaders · every player · every club · the 2026 standings.