Yusaku Iriki

Yusaku Iriki's résumé reads like a shorthand for how brutal the Japanese baseball pipeline is. Born in Miyakonojo, Miyazaki in 1972, he went to PL Gakuen High School and then Asia University before turning professional as a pitcher. To a foreign reader those are just school names, but in Japan they are two of the most famous baseball factories in the country, and the number of talented kids who wash out of them is far larger than the number who make it through. Iriki made it through. His older brother Satoshi pitched professionally too, which means one household produced two men who cleared a bar most players never even approach. He is retired now, and I suspect casual fans would file him under solid rather than great. I think that misses the point. Careers like his are the load-bearing structure of a sport, and the entrance exam alone was harder than most people's whole athletic life.

Name (English)

Yusaku Iriki

Name (Japanese)

入来祐作

Reading

いりき ゆうさく

Born

August 13, 1972 (age 54)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Rat

Origin

Miyakonojō, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan

Height

174 cm

Occupation

baseball player

High school

PL Gakuen High School

University

Asia University

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/irikiyusaku/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusaku%20Iriki
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%A5%E6%9D%A5%E7%A5%90%E4%BD%9C
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4572468

Tags

• Miyazaki Prefecture
• baseball player

Last updated

2026-08-07

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.