Major League Baseball Players Born in Japan / Played in 2011

Since the 19th Century, Major League Baseball has enjoyed a rich, diverse, world-wide set of talent not seen in any other major league sport. Every state in the United States of America, and more than forty-five countries, have had at least one player make it to the show. The table below is a comprehensive historical analysis of every major league baseball player's birth place during the 2011 season. Selecting a player's name will bring up his statistics page and selecting a column title (Birthplace, Debut Year, Final Year) will allow you to re-sort the data.
"For starting pitchers we have two Dominicans, one Italian, one Mexican and one Japanese. In the bullpen we have a Venezuelan, a Mexican, a guy from the United States and a guy from St. Louis." - Los Angeles Dodger / Hall of Fame Manager Tommy Lasorda (AP Wire, 08/18/1999)
Major League Baseball Players Born in Japan / Played in 2011

A Historical Analysis / Return To Players by Birthplace
Ichiro Suzuki Kasugai, Japan 1973-10-22 2001 Active
Hideki Matsui Ishikawa, Japan 1974-06-12 2003 Active
Takashi Saito Miyagi, Japan 1970-02-14 2006 Active
Daisuke Matsuzaka Tokyo, Japan 1980-09-13 2007 Active
Hideki Okajima Kyoto, Japan 1975-12-25 2007 Active
Kosuke Fukudome Osaki, Japan 1977-04-26 2008 Active
Kosuke Fukudome Osaki, Japan 1977-04-26 2008 Active
Hiroki Kuroda Osaka, Japan 1975-02-10 2008 Active
Junichi Tazawa Yokohama, Japan 1986-06-06 2009 Active
Koji Uehara Osaka, Japan 1975-04-03 2009 Active
Koji Uehara Osaka, Japan 1975-04-03 2009 Active
Hisanori Takahashi Tokyo, Japan 1975-04-02 2010 Active
Ryota Igarashi Chiba, Japan 1979-05-28 2010 Active
Tsuyoshi Nishioka Osaka, Japan 1984-07-27 2011 Active
Yoshinori Tateyama Osaka, Japan 1975-12-26 2011 Active

Major League Baseball Players Born in Japan / Played in 2011


Did you know that Jose Canseco was the first foreign-born (Cuba) player to reach the four-hundred home runs plateau? Did you know that Sammy Sosa was the first foreign-born (Dominican Republic) player to reach the five-hundred home runs plateau?

Baseball Almanac is aware that researching baseball players by their place of birth is common data found easily on the Internet today. We, as you are well aware, enjoy taking that extra step here and have taken that common data and added this amazing chart which will enable you to see a historical breakdown of players from any given year in history by their place of birth:
 
1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885
1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895
1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905
1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915
1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925
1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935
1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965
1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975
1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985
1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

If you would like to see a comprehensive list broken down by country of the first player born in a country or territory other than the United States of America, we have one in our Famous First section called Foreign Born Baseball Players.
     

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