is a Japanese professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player for 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 ...

in Japan's

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

. He was selected

Japan national baseball team The is the national team representing Japan in international baseball competitions. It won the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009, as well as WBSC Premier12 in 2019. The team is currently ranked 1st in the world by the World Baseball Softb ...

at the

2009 World Baseball Classic The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international baseball competition. It began on 5 9 and finished 5 26. Unlike in 2006, when the round-robin format of the first two rounds led to some eliminations being decided by run-difference ti ...

. During a brief stint in the

2010–11 Australian Baseball League season The 2010–11 Australian Baseball League season was the inaugural Australian Baseball League (ABL) season, and was held from 6 November 2010 to 13 February 2011. It came 12 years after the Australian Baseball League (1989–99), ...

he played for the

Melbourne Aces The Melbourne Aces are a professional baseball team in the Australian Baseball League based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Their home field is the Melbourne Ballpark in Altona. History On Friday, 20 August 2010 it was announced that ex ...

and although he did not qualify for any statistical leaders, he has the highest single season slugging (.859) and OPS (1.359) for any player with more than 50 at-bats (64). On November 16, 2018, he was selected Yomiuri Giants roster at the

2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series The 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series was the twelfth edition of the MLB Japan All-Star Series, a best-of-six series between an All-Star team from Major League Baseball (MLB) and for the second time in series history, the Japanese national team, Sam ...

exhibition game against MLB All-Stars.

References

External links

1982 births Chuo University alumni Living people Melbourne Aces players Nippon Professional Baseball coaches Nippon Professional Baseball first basemen Nippon Professional Baseball outfielders Baseball people from Nara Prefecture Yomiuri Giants players 2009 World Baseball Classic players Honolulu Sharks players Japanese expatriate baseball players in the United States Japanese expatriate baseball players in Australia {{japan-baseball-outfielder-stub