Nippon Professional Baseball Comeback Player of the Year Award

The Nippon Professional Baseball Comeback Player of the Year Award is given to one player in each league of Central League and Pacific League.

It is given to a player who manages to make a major comeback, either from an illness, injury, or a long term slump. Both Pacific and Central League have different criteria to award Comeback Player of the Year, with the Pacific League having a much stricter criteria, while it is much more relaxed in the Central League. The award is also only given on occasion, if a player meets the criteria specified by each league.

Because of this, no one in the Pacific League has won Comeback Player of the Year since Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes player Koki Morita won it in 2001, and no one has won it in NPB overall since Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2018.

NPB Comeback Player of the Year Award

Year	Player	Team	League	Player	Team	League
1974	Kōzō Ishioka	Yakult Swallows	Central	-	-	-
1975	Sōhachi Aniya	Hanshin Tigers	Central	-	-	-
1976	Kazuhide Funada	Yakult Swallows	Central	-	-	-
1977	Keishi Asano	Yomiuri Giants	Central	-	-	-
1978	Osamu Nomura	Taiyo Whales	Central	-	-	-
1979	Toshiyuki Mimura	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	Central	-	-	-
1980	Kenichi Yazawa	Chunichi Dragons	Central	Hiromitsu Kadota	Nankai Hawks	Pacific
1981	Taira Fujita	Hanshin Tigers	Central	-	-	-
1984	Takamasa Suzuki	Chunichi Dragons	Central	-	-	-
1985	-	-	-	Choji Murata	Lotte Orions	Pacific
1986	Tsunemi Tsuda	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	Central	-	-	-
1987	Tōru Sugiura	Yakult Swallows	Central	-	-	-
	Hisao Niura	Taiyo Whales	Central	-	-	-
1988	Shuzo Arita	Yomiuri Giants	Central	-	-	-
1989	Takashi Nishimoto	Chunichi Dragons	Central	-	-	-
	Takayoshi Nakao	Yomiuri Giants	Central	-	-	-
1990	Sadaaki Yoshimura	Yomiuri Giants	Central	-	-	-
	Kazuhiko Endo	Taiyo Whales	Central	-	-	-
1991	-	-	-	Kazuyoshi Ono	Kintetsu Buffaloes	Pacific
	-	-	-	Kazuyuki Shirai	Nippon-Ham Fighters	Pacific
1992	Akimitsu Ito	Yakult Swallows	Central	-	-	-
1993	Kenjiro Kawasaki	Yakult Swallows	Central	-	-	-
1994	Toshikatsu Hikono	Chunichi Dragons	Central	-	-	-
1996	Shinichi Kato	Hiroshima Carp	Central	-	-	-
1997	Tomohito Ito	Yakult Swallows	Central	-	-	-
1998	Takashi Saito	Yokohama BayStars	Central	Tatsuji Nishimura	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks	Pacific
1999	Shōji Tōyama	Hanshin Tigers	Central	-	-	-
2000	Hitoshi Taneda	Chunichi Dragons	Central	-	-	-
2001	Toshihide Narimoto	Hanshin Tigers	Central	Koki Morita	Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes	Pacific
2002	Tomonori Maeda	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	Central	-	-	-
2003	Masafumi Hirai	Chunichi Dragons	Central	-	-	-
	Ken Suzuki	Yakult Swallows	Central	-	-	-
2004	Hiroki Kokubo	Yomiuri Giants	Central	-	-	-
2008	Keiichi Hirano	Hanshin Tigers	Central	-	-	-
2012	Kan Otake	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	Central	-	-	-
2015	Shohei Tateyama	Tokyo Yakult Swallows	Central	-	-	-
2017	Hitoki Iwase	Chunichi Dragons	Central	-	-	-
2018	Daisuke Matsuzaka	Chunichi Dragons	Central	-	-	-

See also

• Nippon Professional Baseball#Awards
• Baseball awards#Japan
• Major League Baseball Comeback Player of the Year Award