is a Japanese professional

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 ...

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, ...

for the

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 ...

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). As of the 2025 season, he is the oldest active NPB player.

Career

Ishikawa began his career with the

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 ...

in 2002, making his

(NPB) debut on April 4, 2002. On April 7, 2022, Ishikawa became the 3rd pitcher in NPB history to record a hit in 21 consecutive seasons. The other pitchers to achieve the feat were

Masaaki Koyama was a Japanese professional baseball pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He played for the Osaka / Hanshin Tigers from 1953 to 1963, the Tokyo / Lotte Orions from 1964 to 1972, and the Taiyo Whales in 1973. He is a member of the Jap ...

from 1953 to 1973 and

Daisuke Miura is a Japanese former professional baseball player from Kashihara, Nara, Japan. He was a starting pitcher for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars from 1992 through 2016. Playing career Yokohama DeNa BayStars Miura was drafted 6th in the 1991 Nippon Pro ...

(the manager of the

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 ...

at the time) from 1993 to 2016.

References

External links

1980 births Living people Baseball people from Akita Prefecture Aoyama Gakuin University alumni Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Olympic baseball players for Japan Baseball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Yakult Swallows players Tokyo Yakult Swallows players Nippon Professional Baseball Rookie of the Year Award winners Sportspeople from Akita (city) {{Japan-baseball-pitcher-stub