Nobuhiko Matsunaka

Nobuhiko Matsunaka holds a distinction that took nearly two decades for anyone else in Japanese baseball to match: the triple crown, leading the league in average, home runs, and runs batted in during the same season. Power hitters usually trade contact for distance, and that is exactly what makes his peak so unusual to me. He was not a swing-from-the-heels slugger who shrugged at strikeouts; he simply hit the ball hard to every part of the field. Out of Yatsushiro in Kumamoto, he became the fixture in the middle of the Fukuoka Daiei and SoftBank Hawks order, and he carried the same responsibility for the national team at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics and the 2006 World Baseball Classic. He was never the loudest figure in the sport. Look only at the numbers, though, and he stands among the most complete hitters Japan has produced.

Name (English)

Nobuhiko Matsunaka

Name (Japanese)

松中信彦

Born

December 26, 1973 (age 52)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Ox

Origin

Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan

Height

183 cm

Occupation

baseball player

Motto

Private

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/nobuhikomatsunaka3/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%BE%E4%B8%AD%E4%BF%A1%E5%BD%A6

Tags

• Kumamoto Prefecture
• baseball player

Last updated

2026-07-27

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.