Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Series

The Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Game is an annual baseball series of All-Star Games (in most years, two games are played, but three such games can and have been played as well) between players from the Central League and the Pacific League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers. The All-Star Game usually occurs in early to mid-July and marks the symbolic halfway point in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) season (though not the mathematical halfway point; in most seasons, that takes place one week earlier).

History

The first NPB All-Star game was played in 1951.

For many years, mimicking the gaijin waku rule of the NPB,^[1] each All-Star team was limited to two foreign players.^[2]

Game results

Date	Winning League	Score	Overall Record	Venue	Host Team	Attendance	MVP	Winning Pitcher	Losing Pitcher
2004 (Game 1)	Pacific	3–1	Pacific 1-0	Nagoya Dome	Chunichi Dragons		Daisuke Matsuzaka
2004 (Game 2)	Pacific	2–1	Pacific 2-0	Nagano Olympic Stadium	none		Tsuyoshi Shinjo
2005 (Game 1)	Central	6–5	Pacific 2-1	Seibu Dome	Seibu Lions		Tatsuhiko Kinjo
2005 (Game 2)	Central	5–3	Tie 2-2	Koshien Stadium	Hanshin Tigers		Tomonori Maeda
2006 (Game 1)	Central	3–1	Central 3-2	Meiji Jingu Stadium	Yakult Swallows		Norichika Aoki
2006 (Game 2)	Central	7–4	Central 4-2	Sun Marine Stadium	none		Atsushi Fujimoto
2007 (Game 1)	Central	4–0	Central 5-2	Tokyo Dome	Yomiuri Giants		Alex Ramírez
2007 (Game 2)	Central	11–5	Central 6-2	Fullcast Stadium	Rakuten Eagles		Shinnosuke Abe
2008 (Game 1)	Pacific	5–4	Central 6-3	Kyocera Dome Osaka	Orix Buffaloes		Takeshi Yamasaki
2008 (Game 2)	Central	11–6	Central 7-3	Yokohama Stadium	Yokohama BayStars		Masahiro Araki
2009 (Game 1)	Central	10–8	Central 8-3	Sapporo Dome	Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters	38,370	Norichika Aoki
2009 (Game 2)	Pacific	7–4	Central 8-4	Mazda Stadium	Hiroshima Toyo Carp		Nobuhiko Matsunaka
2010 (Game 1)	Central	4–1	Central 8-5	Yahoo Dome	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks		Shinnosuke Abe
2010 (Game 2)	Tie	5–5	Central 8-5-1	Hard Off Eco Stadium	none		Yasuyuki Kataoka
2011 (Game 1)	Central	9–4	Central 9-5-1	Nagoya Dome	Chunichi Dragons		Kazuhiro Hatakeyama
2011 (Game 2)	Pacific	4–3	Central 9-6-1	QVC Marine Field	Chiba Lotte Marines		Takeya Nakamura
2011 (Game 3)	Pacific	5–0	Central 9-7-1	Kleenex Stadium	Rakuten Eagles		Atsunori Inaba
2012 (Game 1)	Central	4–1	Central 10-7-1	Kyocera Dome Osaka	Orix Buffaloes		Norihiro Nakamura
2012 (Game 2)	Central	4–0	Central 11-7-1	Botchan Stadium	none		Kenta Maeda
2012 (Game 3)	Pacific	6–2	Central 11-8-1	Iwate Prefectural Baseball Stadium	none		DaiKan Yoh
2013 (Game 1)	Tie	1–1	Central 11-8-2	Sapporo Dome	Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters		Hirokazu Sawamura
2013 (Game 2)	Central	3–1	Central 12-8-2	Meiji Jingu Stadium	Tokyo Yakult Swallows		Takahiro Arai
2013 (Game 3)	Pacific	3–1	Central 12-9-2	Iwaki Green Stadium	none		Seiichi Uchikawa
2014 (Game 1)	Central	7–0	Central 13-9-2	Seibu Dome	Saitama Seibu Lions		Brad Eldred
2014 (Game 2)	Pacific	12–6	Central 13-10-2	Koshien Stadium	Hanshin Tigers		Yuki Yanagita
2015 (Game 1)	Central	8–6	Central 14-10-2	Tokyo Dome	Yomiuri Giants		Shintaro Fujinami
2015 (Game 2)	Central	8–3	Central 15-10-2	Mazda Stadium	Hiroshima Toyo Carp		Tsubasa Aizawa
2016 (Game 1)	Central	5–4	Central 16-10-2	Yahoo Dome	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks		Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh
2016 (Game 2)	Tie	5–5	Central 16-10-3	Yokohama Stadium	Yokohama DeNA BayStars		Shohei Ohtani
2017 (Game 1)	Pacific	6–2	Central 16-11-3	Nagoya Dome	Chunichi Dragons		Seiichi Uchikawa
2017 (Game 2)	Pacific	3–1	Central 16-12-3	Zozo Marine Stadium	Chiba Lotte Marines		Alfredo Despaigne
2018 (Game 1)	Pacific	7–6	Central 16-13-3	Kyocera Dome Osaka	Orix Buffaloes		Tomoya Mori
2018 (Game 2)	Pacific	5–1	Central 16-14-3	Fujisakidai Prefectural Baseball Stadium	none		Sōsuke Genda
2019 (Game 1)	Pacific	6–3	Central 16-15-3	Tokyo Dome	Yomiuri Giants		Tomoya Mori
2019 (Game 2)	Central	11–3	Central 17-15-3	Koshien Stadium	Hanshin Tigers		Kōji Chikamoto
2020	Series canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 (Game 1)	Central	5-4	Central 18-15-3	MetLife Dome	Saitama Seibu Lions		Ryosuke Kikuchi
2021 (Game 2)	Pacific	4-3	Central 18-16-3	Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi	Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles		Hiroaki Shimauchi
2022 (Game 1)[3]	Pacific	3-2	Central 18-17-3	Fukuoka PayPay Dome	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	35,534 people	Kotaro Kiyomiya
2022 (Game 2)[4][5]	Pacific	2-1	Tie 18-18-3	Matsuyama Central Park Baseball Stadium	None	25,530 people	Yuki Yanagita
2023 (Game 1)	Pacific	8-1	Pacific 19-18-3	Nagoya Dome	Chunichi Dragons		Yuki Yanagita
2023 (Game 2)	Pacific	6-1	Pacific 20-18-3	Mazda Stadium	Hiroshima Toyo Carp		Chusei Mannami

Hanshin Tigers player voting controversy

The fan votes of the starters of the 2023 All Star Series revealed 9 of the 10 highest voted starters were Hanshin Tigers players. It was the third time in NPB players from the same team led the voting in all positions.^[6] The controversy was garnered as some of the positions, such as catcher, which in question was Ryutaro Umeno, were voted in for the sole purpose of being voted in by fans, as he did not produce numbers good enough to warrant an all star game appearance, compared to that of a player like Takumi Ohshiro. Others, like Teruaki Sato at third base, were good, but there had been players who were much more deserving to start, like Toshiro Miyazaki and Kazuma Okamoto.^[7]

See also

• Major League Baseball All-Star Game
• Baseball awards#Japan