Takahiro Arai (Japanese: 新井貴浩, born January 30, 1977 in

Naka-ku, Hiroshima is the heart of Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Naka-ku is home to Hiroshima's central business district and Peace Memorial Park. Major attractions include the Hondori shopping arcade, a covered mall-like street of shops extending east ...

) is a Japanese

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player for the

Hiroshima Toyo Carp The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda ...

in Japan's

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 ...

. His younger brother Ryota is also a professional baseball player currently playing for

Hanshin Tigers The Hanshin Tigers (Japanese: 阪神タイガース ''Hanshin Taigāsu'') are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and is owned by Hanshin Electric Railway ...

College baseball career

In 1998, he participated in the

Tohto University Baseball League Tohto University Baseball League (東都大学野球連盟, Tōto daigaku yakyū renmei) is an intercollegiate baseball league that features 21 prominent universities in the Tokyo area. Game History Tohto University Baseball League was est ...

and went 6 for 12 against an American collegiate All-Star team, winning him the league's RBI title. He only homered twice in college. He was drafted in the sixth round of the '98 NPB draft by the

Hiroshima Carp The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda ...

, the team he had followed as a kid.

Hiroshima Toyo Carp

In 1999, Arai hit .221/.288/.484 for Hiroshima, but homered 7 times in 95 AB. He was involved in two bone-head plays in the course of a week. On September 14, he did not try to advance on a home run by Eddy Diaz because he thought it would be caught; Diaz passed him on the bases, resulting in an out. A week later, he lost count of the number of outs and threw away the ball after a double play, allowing a run to score. Seeing an increase in playing time in 2000, he batted .245/.318/.505 with 16 HR in 208 AB. In '01, he was up to .284/.363/.495 with 18 homers in 313 AB. Finally entering the regular lineup at age 25, he split his time between first base and third in 2002 and batted .287/.342/.514 with 28 homers. He was one homer behind

Tomoaki Kanemoto is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder and manager. In his career as a player he spent 11 years with the Hiroshima Carp before moving to the Hanshin Tigers in 2003, where he spent another 10 years. He holds the world record for c ...

for the team lead and made his first All-Star team. He also led the league with 17 errors. In 2003, Takahiro slipped to .236/.299/402 with 19 HR and a league-high 16 times grounding into double plays, while striking out 120 times as the primary 1B. His playing time was cut back in '04 but he bounced back to .263/.340/.424. Before the 2005 season, he spent four days and three nights at a Buddhist temple to help his focus, adjusting his swing and improved drastically, putting up a .305/.353/.603 line with 91 runs, 43 homers, 94 RBI and 326 total bases. He moved to third primarily, switching spots with

Kenjiro Nomura Kenjiro Nomura may refer to: * Kenjiro Nomura (baseball) * Kenjiro Nomura (artist) Kenjiro Nomura (1896–1956) was a Japanese American painter. Immigrating to the United States from Japan as a boy, he became a well-known artist in the Pacific Nor ...

. He was second in the Central League in slugging (behind Kanemoto) and led the loop in home runs and errors (23). He homered in six straight games, tying

Rick Lancellotti Richard Anthony Lancellotti (born July 5, 1956) is a former first baseman-outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the San Diego Padres (), San Francisco Giants () and Boston Red Sox (). He batted and threw left-handed. Lancellotti move ...

's club record. He made his second All-Star team and his first Best Nine (at first instead of third, as Makoto Imaoka was picked there). His brother Ryota was drafted that off-season. In 2006, Arai hit .299/.336/.479 with 25 home runs and 100 RBI. He was 6th in the Central League in RBI, was third in sacrifice flies (9, one behind co-leaders Alex Ramirez and

Shuichi Murata is a third baseman for the Tochigi Golden Braves of Baseball Challenge League. Murata led the Central League in home runs in both and and is one of the few pure home run hitters in Japanese professional baseball today. He played in the 2008 ...

) and 10th in slugging. The next year, he batted .290/.351/.480 with 28 HR and 102 RBI. He tied Seung-yeop Lee for 6th in runs (84), tied

Tyrone Woods Walter Tyrone Woods (born August 16, 1969 in Brooksville, Florida) is a former professional baseball player. He played five seasons with the Korea Baseball Organization then six further seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, primarily as a ...

for second in RBI (behind Ramirez), was 10th in home runs, third in strikeouts (136) and tied for second in double plays ground into (17), one behind

Norihiro Nakamura is a Japanese former professional baseball third baseman. Nakamura spent almost all of his professional career in Japan with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. Nakamura had a .266 career batting average, 404 home runs and 1338 RBI, and was an eight-t ...

2006 World Baseball Classic/2007 Asian Championship

He played on Japan's team in the 2006 World Baseball Classic and went 1 for 3 with two strikeouts for the champion team. In the 2007 Asian Championship, Arai hit .500/.571/1.000 with 5 RBI in three games; he trailed tourney leader Chin-Feng Chen by one in RBI. Arai helped Japan win the title and clinch a spot in the 2008 Olympics with his performance.

2008 Beijing Olympics

In the 2008 Olympics, he batted .257/.289/.486 with 2 triples and 7 RBI in 9 games as Japan's starting first baseman despite battling injury. His 2-run homer off of Suk-min Yoon broke a scoreless duel against South Korea in the 6th inning but the Japanese staff blew the lead. With Japan down 5-2 in the 9th, Arai tripled against closer Hitoki Iwase and Shuichi Murata doubled Arai home. Japan got no further in the loss. South Korea would go on to an unbeaten record in Beijing. Arai was 10th in the preliminary round in slugging (.563) In the opening round, Arai's 6 RBI tied Nate Schierholtz, Atsunori Inaba, Matthew Brown, Alexei Bell and Giorvis Duvergel for 4th, trailing Alfredo Despaigne, Dae-ho Lee and Michel Enríquez. Arai became head of the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association in 2008, replacing Shinya Miyamoto.

Hanshin Tigers

Arai moved to the Hanshin Tigers as a free agent for the 2008 season and spent 7 years with club. At the end of the 2014 season, following a lackluster year that would see a decrease in his 2015 salary, Arai informed the Hanshin management of his intention to exercise his free agent rights, signaling the end of his time with the club.

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