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The is an annual
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 ...
(NPB) award given to two outstanding players, one each for the
Central League The or 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 in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...
(CL) and
Pacific League The or 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 annual Japan Series. It currently consis ...
(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 NBP Awards. The first recipient of the award was
Eiji Sawamura Eiji Sawamura (沢村 栄治; February 1, 1917 – December 2, 1944) was a Japanese professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he played in Japan for the Yomiuri Giants. Early life On November 20, 1934, the 17-year-old Sawamura fa ...
. The most recent winners, in 2020, are
Tomoyuki Sugano is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Career College career Sugano went to Tokai University, where he had a 37–4 win–loss record and a 0.57 earned run average (ERA). I ...
, from the Central League, and
Yuki Yanagita , nicknamed "Gita (ギータ)", is a professional Japanese baseball outfielder for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He is an eight-time All-Star and a two-time Pacific League MVP, earning those honors in and . Yanagita has won six Japan Series ch ...
, from the Pacific League. In 1940, Victor Starffin became the first player to win the award consecutively and multiple times. Eiji Sawamura and
Kazuhisa Inao was a Japanese professional baseball pitcher. In 1957, he won 20 consecutive games. In 1958 Japan Series, he pitched six games and won 4 consecutive games after his team lost 3 games. He even hit a home run in fifth game of Japan Series. He was t ...
are the youngest players to receive the awards in 1937 and 1957, respectively, at the ages of 20. In 1988,
Hiromitsu Kadota was a Japanese professional baseball player for the Hawks franchise (known during his career as the Nankai Hawks and the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks) and the Orix Braves. Reputed for his slugging ability, he ate a lot and became a strong hitter, though ...
became the oldest player to receive the award at the age of 40.


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 former baseball player and manager Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Ō Sadaharu"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 758. who ...
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 years in a row (1976–1978), sharing a record with Ichiro S ...
(1976–1978) and
Ichiro Suzuki , also known mononymously as , is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played professionally for 28 seasons. He played nine years of his career with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), where he began his ...
(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 strikeout pitchers of all-time. In , he recorded 401 strikeouts, which is still the world record. Enatsu was a bit player in the Black Mist Scandal which embroiled Japanese baseb ...
and
Michihiro Ogasawara Michihiro Ogasawara (小笠原 道大, born October 25, 1973 in Mihama-ku, Chiba, Chiba Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese former professional baseball player. He is currently the first team head coach for Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He had an ...
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) is a Venezuelan-born Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who had a long career in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He is the first foreign-born player to record 2 ...
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 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 ...
until the 1974 season. * The 1945
Japanese Baseball League 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 league c ...
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
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 ...
.


See also

* Nippon Professional Baseball#Awards * Baseball awards#Japan *
List of Nippon Professional Baseball earned run average champions The List of 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 l ...
*
Japan Professional Sports Grand Prize is given to one sportsperson or sports team every year since 1968 by the Japan Professional Sports Association. The award is one of the most prestigious all-sport awards in Japanese sport. The recordholders are the baseball players Ichiro Suzuk ...
*
Athlete of the Year Athlete of the Year is an award given by various sports organizations for the athlete whom they have determined to be deserving of such recognition. Definition of "athlete" *In many nations, an "athlete" primarily refers to someone who participat ...
*
Most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated '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 particu ...
*
Player of the year award Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is h ...


Notes

;General * * * * ;Specific


References

* {{Pacific League MVPs Nippon Professional Baseball trophies and awards
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...