Right-handed pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma. He debuted for the Mariners in 2012 after a 12-season career in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He pitched for the Osaka Kinetsu Buffaloes from 2000-04 ...

Those two alone should have given the M's the ability to dominate the Pacific marketplace, and maybe it did, as they landed Kenji Johjima and Hisashi Iwakuma subsequently, who were both excellent ...

Hisashi Iwakuma was an All-Star and threw a no-hitter for the Mariners. Seattle used to be a destination for Japanese players, but with the rise of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the M's have lost that ...

and they have had several influential Japanese players come through the organization from soon-to-be Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki to catcher Kenji Johjima to no-hitter thrower Hisashi Iwakuma.

His stardom also paved the way for a whole new generation of Japanese starting pitchers to join MLB from Hiroki Kuroda and Hisashi Iwakuma to Yu Darvish and Masahiro Tanaka.

His stardom also paved the way for a whole new generation of Japanese starting pitchers to join MLB from Hiroki Kuroda and Hisashi Iwakuma to Yu Darvish and Masahiro Tanaka. Continue to follow our ...