List of top Nippon Professional Baseball strikeout pitchers

The following is a list of Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers who have recorded at least 2,000 strikeouts. In baseball, a strikeout occurs when the batter receives three strikes during his time at bat. Strikeouts are associated with dominance on the part of the pitcher and failure on the part of the batter. 24 pitchers have achieved the distinction of striking out 2,000 batters. Takayuki Kishi and Hideaki Wakui are currently the only active players with 2,000 strikeouts as of 2025. Kazumi Takahashi came the closest to missing out on 2,000 batters, striking out 1,997.

Masaichi Kaneda has the most career strikeouts in Nippon Professional Baseball. During a 19-year career, he struck out 4,490 batters.[1]

The List

† Denotes elected to Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bold Denotes active player.

A player is considered "inactive" if he has not played baseball for one year or has announced his retirement.
Stats updated as of the end of 2025 season.[2][3]

Rank Player (R/L) K Years pitched Innings pitched
1 Masaichi Kaneda (L) † 4,490 1950–1969 5,526.2
2 Tetsuya Yoneda (R) † 3,388 1956–1977 5,130
3 Masaaki Koyama (R) † 3,159 1953–1973 4,899
4 Keishi Suzuki (L) † 3,061 1966–1985 4,600.1
5 Yutaka Enatsu (L) 2,987 1967–1984 3,196
6 Takao Kajimoto (L) † 2,945 1954–1973 4,208
7 Kimiyasu Kudoh (L) † 2,859 1981–2010 3,336.2
8 Kazuhisa Inao (R) † 2,574 1956–1969 3,599
9 Daisuke Miura (R) 2,481 1992–2016 3,276
10 Choji Murata (R) † 2,363 1968–1990 3,331.1
11 Masahiro Yamamoto (L) 2,310 1986–2015 3,348.2
12 Minoru Murayama (R) † 2,271 1959–1972 3,050.1
13 Shoichi Ono (L) 2,244 1956–1970 2,909
14 Takayuki Kishi (R) 2,200 2007-present 2,680
15 Toshiya Sugiuchi (L) 2,156 2002–2015 2,091.1
16 Kazuhisa Ishii (L) 2,115 1992-2013 2,153.1
17 Hiromi Makihara (R) 2,111 1983–2001 2,485
18 Kazuhisa Kawaguchi (L) 2,092 1981–1998 2,410
19 Hideaki Wakui (R) 2,085 2005-present 2,857.1
20 Fumiya Nishiguchi (R) 2,082 1995-2015 2,527.2
21 Hisashi Yamada (R) † 2,058 1969–1988 3,865
22 Masaji Hiramatsu (R) 2,045 1967-1984 3,360.2
23 Nobuyuki Hoshino (L) 2,041 1984–2002 2,669.1
24 Hiromu Matsuoka (R) 2,008 1968–1985 3,240

References

See also

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