The is an annual

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) award given to two outstanding players, one each for the

Central League The or , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League i ...

(CL) and

Pacific League The , or , or the , due to sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the a ...

(PL). Each league's award is voted on by national baseball writers. Each voter selects three players: a first-place selection is given five points, a second-place selection three points, and a third-place selection one point. The award goes to the player who receives the most overall points. The winners are announced every year in November during Nippon Professional Baseball's awards ceremony called NPB Awards. The first recipient of the award was Eiji Sawamura. The most recent winners, in 2023, are Shōki Murakami, from the Central League, and

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Orix Buffaloes, where he became one of the most decorated pitchers in leag ...

, from the Pacific League. In 1940,

Victor Starffin Viktor Starukhin (, 1 May 1916 – 12 January 1957), nicknamed , or more commonly known as Victor Starffin , was a Japanese baseball player. Born in Russia, he became the first professional pitcher in Japan to win 300 games. With 83 career shutout ...

became the first player to win the award consecutively and multiple times. Eiji Sawamura and Kazuhisa Inao are the youngest players to receive the awards in 1937 and 1957, respectively, at the ages of 20. In 1988, Hiromitsu Kadota became the oldest player to receive the award at the age of 40. A majority of the MVP awards were given to players who played on the pennant winning team. There are a few cases where the MVP was awarded to a player who was not on the pennant winning team, however. These include 2 of Oh's MVP seasons in 1964 and 1974,

Wladimir Balentien Wladimir Ramon "Coco" Balentien (; born July 2, 1984) is a Curaçaoan- Dutch former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB ...

in 2013,

Hisashi Iwakuma is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He has played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes from 2000 to 2004, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2005 to 2011, and Yomiuri Giants in 2019, and all of h ...

in 2008, and Hiromitsu Kadota in 1988. Only twice was the award given to a foreigner in both leagues; in 1989 with Ralph Bryant in the Pacific League and

Warren Cromartie Warren Livingston Cromartie (born September 29, 1953) is an American former professional baseball player best remembered for his early career with the Montreal Expos. He and fellow young outfielders Ellis Valentine and Andre Dawson were the talk ...

in the Central League, and in 2001 with

Tuffy Rhodes Karl Derrick "Tuffy" Rhodes (born August 21, 1968) is a retired American professional baseball player. He played six years in Major League Baseball in the US, and thirteen years in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in Japan. Rhodes is the all-t ...

in the Pacific League and Roberto Petagine in the Central League.

Key

Winners

Japanese Baseball League (1937–1949)

Nippon Professional Baseball (1950–present)

Central League

Pacific League

Multiple winners

There have been 22 players who have won the award multiple times.

Sadaharu Oh Sadaharu Oh ( Japanese: , ''Ō Sadaharu''; born May 20, 1940), also known as Wang Chen-chih (), is a Japanese-born Chinese former professional baseball player and manager who is currently the chairman of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of N ...

currently holds the record for the most awards won, with nine.

Hisashi Yamada is a retired Japanese professional baseball submarine pitcher. He played with the Hankyu Braves in Nippon Professional Baseball from to . Yamada won the Pacific League MVP for three consecutive seasons (1976–1978), sharing a record with Ichi ...

(1976–1978) and

Ichiro Suzuki , also known mononymously as , is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played for 28 seasons. He played the first nine years of his career with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), and the next 12 years w ...

(1994–1996) share the record for the most consecutive awards won.

Yutaka Enatsu is a former Japanese pitcher regarded as one of the best Japanese people, Japanese strikeout pitchers of all-time. In , he recorded 401 strikeouts, which is still the world record. Enatsu was a big player in the Black Mist Scandal (Japanese base ...

and Michihiro Ogasawara are the only players to have won the award in both the Central League and Pacific League.

Alex Ramírez Alexander Ramón Ramírez Quiñónez (born 3 October 1974), nicknamed Ramichan, is a Venezuelan-born former professional baseball outfielder who had a long career in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He is the first foreign-born player to re ...

is the only non-Japanese player receive the award multiple times after the formation of two league system.

Notes

*The save statistic was not formally recorded in the NPB until the 1974 season. * The 1945

Japanese Baseball League The was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936 to 1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball. The league's dominant team was Tokyo Kyojin (renamed the Yomiuri Giants in 1947), which won nine le ...

was cancelled due to World War II. * After 1958, Kazuto Yamamoto became known as Kazuto Tsuruoka. *

Tetsuharu Kawakami was a Japanese baseball player and manager, known for his red bat, and his nickname . He was a professional player for 18 years, winning the batting title five times, two home run crowns, three RBI titles, and had six titles for the most hits in ...

received his first MVP award in 1941, nine years before the formation of

Notes

;General * * * * ;Specific

References

* {{Pacific League MVPs

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

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 the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Key

Winners

Japanese Baseball League (1937–1949)

Nippon Professional Baseball (1950–present)

Central League

Pacific League

Multiple winners

Notes

See also

Notes

References