ⓒ JoongAng Ilbo/JoongAng Ilbo Japanese version2025.12.18 10:35
Japanese pitchers are playing in Korean professional baseball. The KBO League will implement the “Asia Quota” in earnest from next season. This is a system that allows each team to acquire one Asian national player from the Asian League, without restrictions on position. They can be acquired separately from the previous three foreign players, and the number of first-team entries will increase from 28 (26 players) to 29 (27 players). The purpose of introducing the system is to “expand baseball exchanges in Asia” and “strengthen league competitiveness.”
Nine teams, excluding the Kia Tigers, have already completed their player acquisitions. At the center of this is the “Japanese pitcher.” All of them are pitchers, and seven of them are Japanese nationals. The only exceptions are Australian nationality Lachlan Wells (LG Twins) and Taiwanese nationality Wang Bicheng (Hanwha Eagles, former Rakuten). However, since Wang Hikocheng was also in the second team of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) this year, eight pitchers from the Japanese league will appear on the Korean stage for the first time next year. Only Kia, which sent its main shortstop Park Chan-ho to Doosan, plans to acquire an Australian national infielder.
They are not special players. The total acquisition cost for the Asian Quarter is limited to a maximum of $200,000 (approximately 31 million yen), including contract bonuses, annual salaries, options, and transfer fees. There is a big difference from the $1 million cap on new annual salaries for regular foreign players.
However, Japanese baseball boasts an infrastructure that cannot be compared to South Korea. Commentator Chung Min-chul, who played for the Yomiuri Giants for two years, said, “Japan has a strong player base, and there are many talented pitchers on the second team. Even in adult baseball, there are pitchers who have a high level of control and curveballs. They will pose a threat to domestic pitchers.” The head of Team A, who requested anonymity, said, “When we decided to introduce the system, there were many people who thought that Australian players would be the main players.However, when we actually looked for players, there were many opinions that pitchers from Japan, who have a solid foundation, would be safer than pitchers from semi-professional Australia or Taiwan, whose league is somewhat less competitive.”
Shota Takeda, who will wear the SSG Landers uniform, is a pitcher who won 66 games with the SoftBank Hawks first team. He has also participated in the 2015 Premier 12 and the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) as a representative of Japan. After missing one season due to elbow surgery in April, he decided to go to South Korea to make a comeback. Aera, a weekly magazine published by the Asahi Shimbun, recently reported, “It’s noticeable that players who have left the Japanese baseball team are taking on the challenge of playing in the Korean baseball world.” “Takeda’s estimated annual salary this year was 150 million yen, but it was difficult to renew his contract, so he significantly reduced his annual salary and went to South Korea.”
Ichiro Tamura (Doosan Bears, former Seibu) played 27 1/3 innings in the first team this season, and Masaya Kyoyama (Lotte Giants, former DeNA) and Kasei Toda (NC Dinos, former Yomiuri) also took the mound for the first team, albeit only briefly. Toda and Wang Yancheng were active as full-time starting pitchers in the second team. The other players are from second-team teams and independent leagues, but they came to South Korea ahead of the larger players from Australia.
Domestic players are in a difficult situation. There are five spots in the starting rotation this season, two of which are foreigners. If an Asian quota player occupies one additional spot, there will be two remaining.
Developing domestic starting pitchers will become even more difficult. Yang Hyun-jeong (Kia), president of the Korean Professional Baseball Players Association, said, “The players are in a negative position about the Asian quota because it is a ‘workplace issue.” “We cannot reject it because it has already been decided, but the rights and interests of the players should be guaranteed in other ways.”
From the team’s perspective, the Asian Quarter is extremely efficient. There is no guarantee that a foreign player who invested $1 million will be successful, but if an Asian player who was hired for $200,000 performs better than expected, nothing will be better. The head of Team A commented, “Each team is short of pitchers, and perhaps because of that, free agency costs have increased excessively.I think this will be an opportunity for domestic players to wake up.”
In the case of professional basketball, which was the first to adopt the Asian quota, it is said that competition from Filipino players has actually stimulated young domestic players and improved their skills.
From the fans’ standpoint, they can enjoy matches with increased competitiveness and variety. Some believe that Korean baseball is so closed-minded that its competitiveness has declined, and that it should be opened up like Japan.
Commissioner Jeong Min-cheol said, “The goal is to improve the quality of competition for the fans and widen the scope of Korean baseball, so we have to look at the results after next year’s implementation and make a decision.”
