Ryota Imanari

Ryota Imanari's record tells the story better than any anecdote could: appearances for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2008, nothing in 2009, back again in 2010 and 2011, and only after a move to the Hanshin Tigers in 2012 did he hold a place through 2016. Those gaps are the part I find compelling. Most baseball writing goes to players whose careers arrive fully formed; his was assembled season by season, with long stretches of having to prove it all over again. He came out of Urawa Gakuin, grew up in Fujimi, Saitama, and played as an infielder listed at 178 cm with no major awards attached to his name. What he has instead is a career that ran from 2008 to 2016 and could have ended several times along the way. Staying is the hardest skill in the sport, and nobody hands out a trophy for it.

Name (English)

Ryota Imanari

Name (Japanese)

今成亮太

Born

October 6, 1987 (age 38)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Rabbit

Origin

Fujimi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Height

178 cm

Occupation

baseball player

High school

Urawa Gakuin Junior and Senior High School

Motto

Private

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/ryotaimanari/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BB%8A%E6%88%90%E4%BA%AE%E5%A4%AA

Tags

• Saitama 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.