The Best Nine Award: NPB’s All-Star Team, Explained

Awards › The Best Nine Award: NPB's All-Star Team, Explained

Every year, Japanese baseball picks the best player at each spot on the field. There is one for each league. The award is called the Best Nine.

It is a big honor. Players list it on their record next to MVP awards and titles. Sadaharu Oh won it 18 years in a row. Katsuya Nomura won it 19 times.

Here’s the thing. The name says “nine,” but it is not always nine. The Pacific League picks ten players. That is because it uses a designated hitter. And in one year, one player won it twice.

This page explains the whole award. We cover how it started, how players are picked, the records, and the 2025 winners.

New to Japanese baseball? Start with how NPB works. For more awards, see our awards page.

Quick Facts

  • What it is: An award for the best player at each position, in each league.
  • First given: After the 1940 season.
  • Given every year since: 1947.
  • Who votes: Sports writers and broadcasters who have covered pro baseball for at least five years.
  • Players per league: Nine in the Central League. Ten in the Pacific League, which adds a DH.
  • Most times picked: Katsuya Nomura, 19 times, all at catcher.
  • Most years in a row: Sadaharu Oh, 18 years, from 1962 to 1979.
  • Most from one team in one year: Eight, by the Seibu Lions in 1992.

What the Best Nine Is

The Best Nine is like an all-star team chosen after the season. It is for the whole year, not just one game.

For each league, the voters pick:

  • One pitcher.
  • One catcher.
  • One first baseman.
  • One second baseman.
  • One third baseman.
  • One shortstop.
  • Three outfielders.
  • One designated hitter, in the Pacific League only.

The three outfielders do not have to be one left fielder, one center fielder and one right fielder. They are just the three best outfielders.

The voters mostly look at hitting for the position players. For pitchers, they look at pitching.

How It Compares to MLB

MLB does not have one award that matches the Best Nine.

The closest is the Silver Slugger Award. That goes to the best hitter at each spot. But there are a few big changes.

  • In MLB, coaches and managers vote for the Silver Slugger. In Japan, writers vote for the Best Nine.
  • The Silver Slugger is only for hitting. The Best Nine also picks a pitcher.

So the Best Nine is a bit like a Silver Slugger and an all-season all-star team at once. For more ways NPB and MLB differ, see our NPB vs MLB guide.

How the Award Began

The Best Nine was first given after the 1940 season.

Then came World War II. There was no award for some years.

In 1947, it came back. It has been given every year since then.

At first, there was one league in Japan. In 1950, that league split into two. Now there was the Central League and the Pacific League. From then on, each league picked its own Best Nine. You can learn about the split on our 1950 league split page.

In 1975, the Pacific League started to use the designated hitter. A DH bats in place of the pitcher. So the Pacific League added a DH spot to its Best Nine. Since then, it has had ten winners each year.

Who Votes

The voters are reporters. They work for newspapers, TV, radio and news services across Japan.

To vote, a reporter must have covered pro baseball for five years or more.

Each voter picks one player at each spot in each league. The player with the most votes at each spot wins.

The votes have names on them. But the full list of who voted for whom is not made public.

When It Is Announced

Up to 2004, the winners were announced two days after the last game of the Japan Series.

Since 2005, the winners have been announced at a big awards show. NPB holds it each year after the season. MVP and Rookie of the Year are also announced there.

Ties and Odd Cases

Since voters each pick one player, ties are very rare. But they can happen.

The 2004 tie. In 2004, two Central League second basemen got the same number of votes. They were Masahiro Araki of the Chunichi Dragons and Greg LaRocca of the Hiroshima Carp. Each got 80 votes. Both won the award. It was the first tie since 1950.

One player, two spots. In 1966, Yasuhiro Kunisada of the Nankai Hawks got the most votes at second base. He also got the most votes at third base. He could only win one. He won at second base. The third base award went to the next player, Tony Roig of the Nishitetsu Lions.

Shohei Ohtani in 2016. The rules for the DH are a bit different. A player can win at a field spot and at DH in the same year. In 2016, Ohtani of the Nippon-Ham Fighters won as a pitcher. He also won as the DH. No one else has won at two spots in the same year.

Pitchers Who Did Not Pitch Enough

Most pitchers who win have thrown a lot of innings. But two winners did not throw enough innings to qualify for the ERA title.

  • Kazuhiro Sasaki, 1998. He was a closer for Yokohama. He threw 56 innings.
  • Shohei Ohtani, 2016. He threw 140 innings. He also played as a hitter.

The Pitcher and the MVP Pitcher

In the Central League, the Best Nine pitcher is also named the “Most Valuable Pitcher.”

The Pacific League does it a different way. There, the “Most Valuable Pitcher” goes to the pitcher with the best winning percentage. He must throw enough innings to qualify.

The Big Records

Here are the biggest records for the Best Nine.

Most times overall – Katsuya Nomura: 19 times, all at catcher.

Most times at each spot – Pitcher: Takehiko Bessho, 6 times. – Catcher: Katsuya Nomura, 19 times. – First base: Sadaharu Oh, 18 times. – Second base: Shigeru Chiba, Morimichi Takagi and Hideto Asamura, 7 times each. – Third base: Shigeo Nagashima, 17 times. – Shortstop: Yoshio Yoshida, 9 times. – Outfield: Isao Harimoto, 16 times. – DH: Hiromitsu Kadota, 4 times.

Most years in a row – Overall: Sadaharu Oh, 18 years in a row, from 1962 to 1979. – Pitcher: Kazuhisa Inao, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 3 years in a row each. – Catcher: Katsuya Nomura, 13 years in a row. – Third base: Shigeo Nagashima, 17 years in a row. – Shortstop: Kazuo Matsui, 7 years in a row. – Outfield: Isao Harimoto, 11 years in a row. – DH: Orestes Destrade, 3 years in a row.

The Top Pitchers

Only one pitcher wins each year in each league. So it is very hard to win this many times.

  • Takehiko Bessho: 6 times. He won in 1947, 1948, 1951, 1952, 1955 and 1956.
  • Kazuhisa Inao: 5 times.
  • Hisashi Yamada: 5 times.
  • Masaki Saito: 5 times.
  • Tomoyuki Sugano: 5 times. His last one was in 2024.
  • Masaichi Kaneda: 3 times.
  • Minoru Murayama: 3 times.
  • Keishi Suzuki: 3 times.
  • Kimiyasu Kudo: 3 times.
  • Daisuke Matsuzaka: 3 times, from 1999 to 2001.
  • Kenta Maeda: 3 times.
  • Yoshinobu Yamamoto: 3 times, from 2021 to 2023.

In the Pacific League, the record is 5. Inao and Yamada share it. In the Central League, the record is also 5. Saito and Sugano share it.

The Top Hitters

Here are the position players who have won 10 times or more.

  • Katsuya Nomura: 19 times.
  • Sadaharu Oh: 18 times.
  • Shigeo Nagashima: 17 times.
  • Isao Harimoto: 16 times.
  • Tetsuharu Kawakami: 10 times.
  • Kazuhiro Yamauchi: 10 times.
  • Michiyo Arito: 10 times.
  • Yutaka Fukumoto: 10 times.
  • Koji Yamamoto: 10 times.
  • Hiromitsu Ochiai: 10 times.
  • Tsutomu Ito: 10 times.

A few more stars won 8 or 9 times. Atsuya Furuta and Shinnosuke Abe each won 9 times at catcher. That is the Central League record for a catcher. Hideki Matsui won 8 times in a row, from 1995 to 2002. Read about him on our Hideki Matsui page.

As of the 2025 season, two active players have won many times. Hideto Asamura has won 8 times. Yuki Yanagita has also won 8 times.

Nagashima: Every Single Year

Shigeo Nagashima has a record no one can top.

He played for the Giants from 1958 to 1974. That is 17 years. He won the Best Nine at third base in all 17 of them. Every year he played, he won it.

Read about the team on our Yomiuri Giants history page.

Oh: 18 Straight Years

Sadaharu Oh won the Best Nine at first base from 1962 to 1979. That is 18 years in a row.

Oh and Nagashima played on the same team. Between them, they won the award 35 times.

Read more about Oh on our Sadaharu Oh page.

Players Who Won at Many Spots

A few players have won at three different spots.

  • Akinobu Mayumi: Shortstop, second base and outfield. Once each.
  • Hiromitsu Ochiai: First base 4 times, second base 2 times, third base 4 times.
  • Nobuhiko Matsunaka: First base 3 times, DH once, outfield once.

Tuffy Rhodes and Three Teams

Tuffy Rhodes won the Best Nine for three teams. That is a record for a player who changed teams.

  • Kintetsu Buffaloes: 5 times.
  • Yomiuri Giants: once.
  • Orix Buffaloes: once.

That is 7 in all. Read more about him on our page on Americans in NPB.

Most Winners From One Team

Sometimes one team has a huge year. Then many of its players win.

  • Pacific League: The Seibu Lions had 8 winners in 1992.
  • Central League: The Giants had 7 in 1953. The Hanshin Tigers tied that in 2025.

The 2025 Winners

Here are the Best Nine winners for 2025. The names are written in English letters. Some players spell their names a bit differently in English.

Central League – Pitcher: Shoki Murakami (Hanshin). – Catcher: Seishiro Sakamoto (Hanshin). – First base: Yusuke Oyama (Hanshin). – Second base: Takumu Nakano (Hanshin). – Third base: Teruaki Sato (Hanshin). – Shortstop: Yuta Izuguchi (Giants). – Outfield: Shota Morishita (Hanshin), Koji Chikamoto (Hanshin) and Yuki Okabayashi (Chunichi).

Pacific League – Pitcher: Livan Moinelo. – Catcher: Kenya Wakatsuki. – First base: Tyler Nevin. – Second base: Taisei Makihara. – Third base: Kazuki Murabayashi. – Shortstop: Rui Muneyama. – Outfield: Tatsuru Yanagimachi, Keita Nakagawa and Ukyo Shuto. – DH: Franmil Reyes.

Hanshin won the Central League in 2025. Seven of its players made the team. See more on our Hanshin Tigers history page. For all the 2025 title winners, see our 2025 season page.

Players Who Won in Both Leagues

Some players have won the Best Nine in both leagues at the same spot. Here are a few:

  • Pitcher: Kimiyasu Kudo.
  • First base: Hiromitsu Ochiai.
  • Third base: Hiromitsu Ochiai and Michihiro Ogasawara.
  • Outfield: Isao Harimoto, Tuffy Rhodes, Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Atsunori Inaba and Seiichi Uchikawa, among others.

No catcher and no shortstop has done it.

Why the Award Matters

Why do fans care so much about the Best Nine?

First, it is easy to understand. Each spot gets one winner. You can look at a list and see the best team of the year.

Second, it tells you how good a player was over a long time. One great year can win an MVP. But to win the Best Nine ten times, a player has to be great for ten years.

Third, it helps with the Hall of Fame. When people talk about who should get in, they look at things like this. A long list of Best Nine awards helps a player’s case.

Here’s the thing. Some great players never won the MVP. But almost every great player has won the Best Nine. That is why it is such a good way to compare players.

When you read about a player in Japan, look for the Best Nine on his record. It tells you a lot.

Problems With the Voting

The Best Nine is voted on by people. So sometimes there are odd votes.

Now and then, a player gets a vote even though he barely played. In 2020, a Giants outfielder who played in just four games got one vote. In 2021, a Hanshin player who hit .174 got a vote in the outfield.

Fans sometimes complain about these votes. Since the full list of votes is not made public, it is hard to know why they happen.

What Might Change

The Central League plans to start using the DH in 2027. If that happens, the Central League may add a DH spot to its Best Nine too. Then both leagues would pick ten players.

Best Nine vs Golden Glove

Japan also has the Golden Glove Award. It is a different award.

  • Best Nine: Mostly for hitting, plus the best pitcher.
  • Golden Glove: For fielding. It goes to the best fielder at each spot.

A player can win both in the same year.

Timeline

  • 1940: The first Best Nine.
  • 1947: The award comes back after the war. It is given every year from now on.
  • 1950: The league splits in two. Each league picks its own Best Nine.
  • 1953: The Giants have 7 winners.
  • 1962 to 1979: Oh wins 18 years in a row.
  • 1966: Kunisada gets the most votes at two spots.
  • 1975: The Pacific League adds a DH spot.
  • 1992: The Seibu Lions have 8 winners.
  • 2004: The first tie since 1950. Araki and LaRocca both win.
  • 2005: Winners are now announced at the NPB awards show.
  • 2016: Ohtani wins as a pitcher and as a DH.
  • 2025: Hanshin has 7 winners, tying the Central League record.

Key Terms

  • Best Nine: The award for the best player at each spot in each league.
  • DH: Designated hitter. A player who bats for the pitcher.
  • Silver Slugger: An MLB award for the best hitter at each spot.
  • Golden Glove: Japan’s award for the best fielder at each spot.
  • Most Valuable Pitcher: A pitching award. The Central League gives it to its Best Nine pitcher.

More terms are in our glossary.

Common Questions

Who picks the Best Nine? Reporters who have covered pro baseball for at least five years.

Why does the Pacific League pick ten players? It uses a DH. So it picks a best DH too.

Who has won the Best Nine the most? Katsuya Nomura. He won it 19 times as a catcher.

Can a player win at two spots? Only in one special case. A player can win at a field spot and at DH. Ohtani did it in 2016.

Is the Best Nine the same as the All-Star Game? No. The All-Star Game is in the middle of the year, and fans help pick the players. The Best Nine is picked by reporters after the season.

Is the Best Nine like the Silver Slugger? It is close. But writers vote, not coaches. And a pitcher is picked too.

The Bottom Line

The Best Nine is Japan’s all-season all-star team. Reporters pick the best player at each spot. Each league has its own team.

It started in 1940. It has been given every year since 1947. The Pacific League adds a DH, so it picks ten players.

The records belong to the legends. Nomura won 19 times. Oh won 18 years in a row. Nagashima won every year he played.

As of the 2025 season, the award is still one of the top honors in Japanese baseball. To see who led the league in each stat, visit our title holders page.

Sources