The is a term used to collectively describe the (usually Japanese)

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

players that belong to former

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011 ...

and

Saitama Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway ...

starting pitcher In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pit ...

Daisuke Matsuzaka is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher, who pitched professionally for 23 seasons, 16 of them in NPB, 7 in MLB. He is currently a baseball color commentator, critic, Sports journalism, reporter, and YouTuber. Daisuke is nicknamed i ...

's age group. As per Japanese laws on how

children A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

are to be divided into

grade levels Educational stages are subdivisions of formal learning, typically covering early childhood education, primary education, secondary education and tertiary education. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) rec ...

, this term refers to players born between April 2, 1980, and April 1, 1981. The term was coined by the Japanese

media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

as the age group that came to be known as one of the deepest and most talented in

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

(NPB) history.

Background

Precursor

In , then- Waseda Jitsugyo High School pitcher Daisuke Araki rose to national stardom for his sensational performance in the 62nd

National High School Baseball Championship The of Japan, commonly known as , is an annual nationwide high school baseball tournament. It is the largest scale amateur sport event in Japan. The tournament, organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation and ''Asahi Shimbun'', t ...

despite being in only his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

(Japanese equivalent of tenth grade) of high school. Araki went on to pitch in five consecutive national tournaments (spring and summer), including the

National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament The National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament (選抜高等学校野球大会 ''senbatsu kōtō gakkō yakyū taikai'') of Japan, commonly known as "Spring Kōshien" (春の甲子園 ''haru no kōshien'') or "Senbatsu" (センバツ ...

. His popularity, particularly among women, became such a

cultural phenomenon Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

that studies showed that Daisuke (in particular, that with the

Kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

characterization "大輔") was the most popular name given to newborn

infant In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to juveniles of ...

s in Japan from 1979 to 1986. Four of the players belonging to the Matsuzaka Generation (namely, Daisuke Matsuzaka,

Orix Buffaloes The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

Daisuke Katoh and former

pitchers Daisuke Sakai and Daisuke Ue) were given this name and Kanji.

Origin

Although the year is often associated with Matsuzaka's stellar performance as the ace pitcher for

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

Senior High School in the 80th National High School Baseball Championship, it was also the final year of

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

for many players who would go on to play in the NPB. Some went on to the pros immediately after high school, while others did so after playing in

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

or the industrial leagues. The media coined the term "Matsuzaka Generation" to describe those born between 2 April 1980 and 1 April 1981 for a number of reasons; namely, that an exceedingly high number of players who played in the 80th National High School Baseball Tournament succeeded at the professional level; that many who went on to play at some of the highest levels of Japanese

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

like the Tokyo Big6 and

Tohto University is a private university in Fukaya, Saitama, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from th ...

leagues became ace pitchers for their teams as

freshmen A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary school, post-se ...

and

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

s; and that many prominent Japanese

athletes An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including trac ...

as well as

celebrities Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

were born during this span as well. (It can also be said, in turn, that Matsuzaka was able to enjoy an exceptional career in the pros despite being surrounded by such a concentration of talent.) The name is thus not attributed to any particular

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to in ...

organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences) is an legal entity, entity—such as ...

and is said to have occurred naturally. While other age groups seen to consist of many talented players have since been given similar names—those born between 2 April 1988 and 1 April 1989 are sometimes referred to as the or in reference to Waseda University pitcher Yuki Saito or, alternatively, the in reference to

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

pitcher

Masahiro Tanaka is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He has previously played in NPB for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. From ...

—Matsuzaka's age group was the first to be given the name "世代", meaning "Generation". No single age group has produced players who have as yet collectively succeeded at the professional level to the extent to which Matsuzaka's has.

MBS Documentary

On March 3, 2003, major Japanese television network

Mainichi Broadcasting System JOOY-DTV (channel 4), branded as or (formerly known as from 1959 to 2011), is a Japanese television station serving as the Kansai region key station of the Japan News Network, owned-and-operated by a subsidiary of MBS Media Holdings with ...

ran a special feature titled "Matsuzaka Generation – Spring, For Each of the 22-Year-Olds" (using the "ジェネレーション", the literal

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

syllabary In the Linguistics, linguistic study of Written language, written languages, a syllabary is a set of grapheme, written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) mora (linguistics), morae which make up words. A symbol in a syllaba ...

for "Generation", instead of the Japanese word "世代", or ''sedai'') on its popular documentary television series ''Jounetsu Tairiku''. It covered the lives of various players who belonged to the group, some who had gone on to the pros ( Nagisa Arakaki), some who still hoped to be drafted (Katsumi Higaki) and some who had decided to pursue other careers altogether (), nearly five years after the now-legendary 80th National High School Baseball Championship.

Criticism

The term "Matsuzaka Generation" is often used to describe players belonging to this age group more so for its sheer ''simplicity'' rather than to recognize the accomplishments of Matsuzaka himself. Despite this, players' reactions to this name being used have been mixed: the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They h ...

organization is famous for rejecting the name altogether and announcing, "Please refer to the players that belong to the Matsuzaka Generation on ''our'' team as the '80's' (Eighties)."

Hanshin Tigers The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, next to their main stadium, Hanshin Koshien Stadium. The Tigers are owned by Hanshin Electric Railway Co., ...

pitcher Tomoyuki Kubota once remarked, "It makes it sound like Matsuzaka is the only one who makes this group relevant. The only thing we have in common is that we're the same age." Likewise,

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. Founded on February 22, 1938, as the Nankai Club, being the first Kansai t ...

pitcher Nagisa Arakaki has said, "Someday I'll make them call it the 'Arakaki Generation'". The

Yokohama BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its current ...

once referred to the age group as the "Koike Generation" for then-BayStars

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

Masaaki Koike (now with the Chunichi Dragons) within the team.

"The Last Star"

While all of the players belonging to the group were naturally born within a one-year span, they entered the pros in different years depending on how many years they had spent in college, the industrial and/or the independent leagues (if at all). As the term "Matsuzaka Generation" became more commonplace, the media began to refer to a player who was drafted into the NPB in ''later'' years because he had enjoyed an established career at the amateur level prior to going pro as . There is no record of any member of this group who went pro straight after high school or spent four years in college (and was thus drafted in ) ever being referred to as "The Last Star". The first player known to have been called by this name is

Yasutomo Kubo Yasutomo Kubo (久保康友, born August 6, 1980, in Kashihara, Nara) is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Hyogo Bravers. He has previously played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Chiba Lotte Marines from 2005 to 200 ...

, who spent six years in the industrial leagues before being drafted in despite being a well-known draft prospect since high school who once led his team to the finals of the 80th National High School Baseball Championship (losing to Yokohama Senior High).

Shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball positions, baseball or softball fielding position between second base, second and third base, which is considered to be among the Defensive spectrum, most demanding defensive positions. Historically, the ...

Eishin Soyogi was also referred to as "The Last Star of the Matsuzaka Generation" when he played well in his

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience, a rookie is typically considered needing more tra ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

with the

Hiroshima Carp The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda ...

in , though the title failed to catch on. (The name has only been used for players with established track records at the amateur level, explaining why players like shortstop Naoto Watanabe were not called "The Last Star" when they were drafted in .) In , Triple-A

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

pitcher Kazuhito Tadano was again referred to as "The Last Star of the Matsuzaka Generation" upon being drafted, though his situation differed in that he was not a true "rookie", having played for the major league team

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...

from to . (His situation was complicated due to an appearance in a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

porn Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...

film that caused NPB teams to blackball him and force him to play in the United States.) The last ''actual'' player belonging to this age group to go pro is shortstop/

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

Jobu Morita, who played for

Mitsubishi Motors is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.

Okazaki Okazaki may refer to: *Okazaki (surname) *Okazaki, Aichi, a city in Japan *Okazaki Castle, a castle in Japan *Okazaki fragments Okazaki fragments are short sequences of DNA nucleotides (approximately 150 to 200 base pairs long in eukaryotes) w ...

of the Japanese industrial leagues, the

Elmira Pioneers The Elmira Pioneers are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Elmira, New York. They have been affiliated with many major league teams throughout their history. Currently, Elmira Pioneers play as members of the Perfect Game Collegiate Base ...

of the

New York Collegiate Baseball League The New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL) is a collegiate summer baseball league founded in 1978 and sanctioned by the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball, National Amateur Baseball Federation and Major League Baseball. Each ...

, and the Kagawa Olive Guyners of the independent Shikoku-Kyushu Island League before being drafted by the Golden Eagles in .

Major League Baseball players

The term is typically only used in reference to Japanese players, but the Japanese media has, at times, referred to other (non-Japanese) major leaguers born during the aforementioned span as belonging to the "Matsuzaka Generation", most notably former Red Sox pitchers

Josh Beckett Joshua Patrick Beckett (born May 15, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). A three-time MLB All-Star, he played for the Florida Marlins, the Boston Red Sox, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Afte ...

and

Jonathan Papelbon Jonathan Robert Papelbon (; born November 23, 1980) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), most notably for the Boston Red Sox, with whom he was an Major League Baseball Al ...

. Many other established major leagues belong to this age group, including

pitcher C.C. Sabathia,

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, ...

pitcher Dan Haren,

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

outfielder

Curtis Granderson Curtis Granderson Jr. (born March 16, 1981), nicknamed "the Grandyman", is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Los Ange ...

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

pitcher Brett Myers, Phillies outfielder

Shane Victorino Shane Patrick Victorino (born November 30, 1980), nicknamed "the Flyin' Hawaiian", is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodge ...

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

outfielder

Alex Ríos Alexis Israel Ríos (born February 18, 1981) is an American former professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, and Kansas City Royals. A World Serie ...

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. They are one of two major ...

first First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

Hank Blalock,

first baseman/outfielder

Nick Swisher Nicholas Thompson Swisher (born November 25, 1980) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and first baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB). He was a switch hitter who threw left-handed, and played for the Oakland Athletics, Chica ...

and free agent pitcher Mark Prior.

Players

A total of 94 players belonging to the Matsuzaka Generation have been on one of the twelve professional baseball teams' rosters. Additionally, Matsuzaka and Kazuhito Tadano have played for teams in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. ''Below is a partial list of said players. It includes only those for which

English Wikipedia The English Wikipedia is the primary English-language edition of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on 15 January 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition. English Wikipedia is hosted alongside o ...

pages exist (as of October 9, 2010).''

Nippon Professional Baseball

Central League

** Kyuji Fujikawa - retired as of 2020 ** Tomoyuki Kubota - retired as of 2014 *

Hiroshima Toyo Carp The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda ...

** Hirotaka Egusa - retired as of 2017 ** Akihiro Higashide - retired as of 2015, currently Hiroshima batting coach ** Katsuhiro Nagakawa - retired as of 2019, currently Hiroshima pitching coach ** Eishin Soyogi - retired as of 2017, currently Orix coach *

** Ken Katoh - retired as of 2016, currently Yomiuri battery coach **

Shuichi Murata is a Japanese former professional baseball third baseman. He played 15 seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) from 2003 to 2017 for the Yokohama BayStars and Yomiuri Giants. Murata led the Central League in home runs in both and and ...

- retired as of 2018, currently Yomiuri batting coach **

Toshiya Sugiuchi is a Japanese baseball player. He is a Left-handedness, left-handed starting pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants. Sugiuchi was the Eiji Sawamura Award winner in . He has had some of the most international experience of any active Nippon Professiona ...

- retired as of 2018, currently Yomiuri pitching coach *

Yokohama DeNA BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its current n ...

** Taketoshi Gotoh - retired as of 2018, currently Rakuten batting coach **

- retired as of 2017, currently playing at Atlantic League ** Shuichiro Osada - retired as of 2016 *

Tokyo Yakult Swallows The Tokyo Yakult Swallows () are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams in Tokyo, the other being the Yomiuri G ...

** Nagisa Arakaki - retired as of 2016 ** Chikara Onodera - retired as of 2012, currently Yakult pitching coach **

Shohei Tateyama is a former Japanese professional baseball pitcher and currently pitting coach for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He played for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of the NPB. Background Tateyama began his pro ...

- retired as of 2019, currently Rakuten pitching coach *

** Yudai Kawai - retired as of 2016 ** Masato Kobayashi - retired as of 2014 ** Takahito Kudo - retired as of 2018, currently Chunichi outfield and base-running coach

Pacific League

Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba, Chiba, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings, Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. The Marines were a founding member of the Pacific Le ...

** Ryotaro Doi - retired as of 2007 ** Kentaro Hashimoto - retired as of 2012 *

Shinsuke Ogura is a Japanese baseball player. He has been with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks since 1999, and plays as pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mo ...

- retired as of 2012 ** Tsuyoshi Wada - retired as of 2024 *

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters The are a Japanese professional Baseball in Japan, baseball team based in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido, Kitahiroshima, Hokkaidō, in the Sapporo metropolitan area. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the major ...

** Hiroshi Kisanuki - retired as of 2015, currently Yomiuri pitching coach ** Toshimasa Konta - retired as of 2012, currently Nippon-Ham outfield and base-running coach ** Kazuhito Tadano - retired as of 2014 ** Kenji Yano - retired as of 2018, currently Nippon-Ham outfield and batting coach **

Kazunari Sanematsu is a Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball player for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan's Pacific League. Before playing for the Fighters he was a member of the Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competin ...

- retired as of 2019, currently Yomiuri battery coach *

** Shogo Akada - retired as of 2014, currently Seibu batting coach ** Eiichi Koyano - retired as of 2018, currently Orix batting coach *

** Matsuzaka Daisuke - retired as of 2021 ** Hichori Morimoto - retired as of 2015 ** Naotaka Takehara - retired as of 2016 ** Tatsuyuki Uemoto - retired as of 2017, currently Seibu battery coach ** Shogo Kimura - retired as of 2018, currently playing

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles The , often shortened as the , are a baseball team based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It has played in Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League since the team's formation in November 2004. The team is owned by the Internet shopping ...

** Yosuke Hiraishi - retired as of 2011, currently SoftBank batting coach ** Daisuke Kato - retired as of 2013 ** Yuya Kubo - retired as of 2020 ** Jobu Morita - retired as of 2011 ** Toshiya Nakashima - retired as of 2014 **

Keiji Oyama Keiji Oyama (小山桂司; born November 19, 1980) is a Japanese former professional baseball catcher in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2008, the Chunichi Dragons from 2009 to 2011, and fo ...

- retired as of 2015 ** Naoto Watanabe - retired as of 2020 ** Koji Yamasaki - retired as of 2015

Other figures

Japanese media have sometimes applied the appellation of Matsuzaka Generation to other

and

born in the same time span who played in high school or college competition with other members of the Matsuzaka Generation cohort, even if they did not eventually become professional baseball players themselves. ''Below is a partial list of such figures.'' *, sportscaster and journalist *, sportscaster and television host *

Daisuke Sekimoto (born February 9, 1981) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division. He is also known for his appearances in Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max. He is a three-time BJW World Strong Hea ...

, professional wrestler

References

{{reflist Nicknamed groups of baseball players Baseball in Japan Nippon Professional Baseball players