Name: Shohei Ohtani & the Samurai Japan powerhouse (World Baseball Classic history, Ichiro Suzuki + more)
Uploaded: 2026-03-16T09:49:46.000Z
Duration: 11 min 18 s
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Is Japan the best in the world at baseball?

Adverbs of degree

You've definitely had this thought over the last few years.

In 2006, maybe you thought about it and laughed.

Three years later, maybe that thought got a little more serious.

By 2023, you were asking your friends this question and 2025, when Ichiro got 393 of 394 possible hall of Fame votes and Shohei Ohtani did this.

Well, now those questions are getting really loud.

But this has been building and building for the last 25 years.

In that time, Japan's influence on American baseball has changed from a question mark to a giant exclamation point.

We're going to tell you how all of this happened so fast.

And as amazing as the rise of Japan has been, we'll tell you why.

But for now, we'll go back to the very start.

And that start is right here in a boring looking conference room in the year 2000.

If you had to pinpoint a moment where the big bang of Japanese baseball and MLB started, this is it.

Because this is where the Mariners signed Ichiro to be the first ever Japanese position player in mlb.

I know there were Japanese players who made the jump before then shout out Masanori Murakami and Hideo Nomo.

He was a baseball God in npb, a three time MVP and a celebrity.

And he was going to answer the question on everyone's can Japanese hitters translate to mlb?

This may come as a surprise knowing what we know now, but

a lot of people seriously doubted Ichiro's ability to make the jump.

When I came to America, many people said I was too skinny to compete with bigger major leaguers.

Someone even said to me, don't embarrass the nation.

At the very start, even his own manager wasn't sure.

We were in spring training and obviously Luke Pinelli was our manager.

He was standing on the top step and Ichiro kept hitting choppers, high choppers over our dugout at spring training on the third base side.

He said, can I see you pull up all one time, son.

And Ichiro kind of turns his head and he looks and he's like, like you talking to me.

So he goes up his next ab, he hits a ball, hits it over the bullpen.

He comes in and everybody's giving him high fives.

He gets ready to sit down, he goes like this.

From that point on, Lou never said another word to him.

What the doubters didn't know is how long and hard Ichiro had prepared for this moment.

From third grade on, Ichiro practiced baseball for a minimum of five hours a day, every day of the year.

That swing that Lou Piniello wasn't sure about.

But Ichiro spent his whole life fine tuning it.

Starting in his backyard using a shovel as his bat.

And then later, with full days spent hitting 500 pitches in the batting cage.

So Ichiro didn't just succeed in America.

You could argue he had the best rookie year of any player ever.

The AL Rookie of the Year, the AL mvp, and

the best player on the best regular season baseball team of all time.

That season swung the doors to MLB wide open for more Japanese players.

Hideki Matsui was signed by the Yankees at the end of 2002 and proved that a power hitter could succeed in the world's toughest market.

But the next big wave of stars would hit after a shocking victory on the global stage.

The 2006 World Baseball Classic was billed as a showcase for MLB superstars to represent their countries.

Everyone assumed this was America's chance to show off its dominance to the world, maybe with some competition from the Dominican Republic.

Japan had their own homegrown star in Ichiro, but only one other player on an MLB roster.

There were plenty of fireworks from the big names in the tournament.

They brought their brand of fundamentally sound baseball and they beat everybody.

Only one other team in the tournament had more than 62 total hits.

The Japanese offense ended up sending several hitters to mlb.

But the real revelations came from the pitching staff.

Japan sends out the 25 year old right hander Daisuke Matsuzaka.

He led the league in ERA in both 03 and 04 and probably is the best pitcher Japan has to offer.

Daisuke Matsuzaka was the first of many Japanese players who exploded onto the world stage during a WWBC tournament.

He went 3, 0 to win the MVP and then sparked a legendary bidding war.

When he was posted later in the year, people were even convinced Matsusaka threw a secret pitch called the Gyro Ball that may or may not even exist.

And oh by the way, Koji Uehara won a pair of games as well and went on to have an incredibly successful career as an MLB reliever that not enough people talk about.

He had a.266 ERA in nine seasons and one of the great closer seasons of all time.

Before locking up the 2013 World Series, we should talk about Koji Uehara more.

When the WBC came back in 2009, Japan wasn't going to catch anyone by surprise.

But just like in 2006, they had an ace up their sleeve.

A bright shining young star not only in Japan, but in international baseball.

If Daisuke was a star in NPB, Yu Darvish was a supernova.

In the five seasons from 2007 to 2011, he never posted an era over two and the 22 year old was at the peak of his powers.

While Matsuzaka took home his second straight MVP, Darvish announced his presence with authority.

That's in there and Japan's going to defend their title tomorrow night with a 9, 4 win.

He led the tournament with 20 strikeouts in just 13 innings and after a rocky ninth inning, it was Darvish on the mound in the 10th, locking down Japan's back to back WBC titles swung out and missed and Japan has successfully defended their World Baseball Classic title.

Darvish dominated the NPB for three more seasons before signing with the Texas Rangers in 2012.

Two years later, the Yankees signed Masahiro Tanaka.

Japanese names were becoming more and more common at the time.

Top of MLB rotations and the next big name was already being talked about.

But the problem was nobody believed what he could do because it had never been done before.

American fans first heard about Shohei Ohtani in 2012 when he announced he wanted to skip NPB entirely to sign with an MLB team.

He was a high schooler throwing 100 miles per hour and hitting 500 foot home runs.

When he eventually stayed in Japan, the legend only grew and legend was really the only way to describe Ohtani.

A player like him only existed in video games.

Shohei finally landed in Anaheim in 2018 and the doubters voices were loud.

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Shohei Ohtani & the Samurai Japan powerhouse (World Baseball Classic history, Ichiro Suzuki + more)

incredible

term

presence

impressive