This is a list of the top 40 Nippon Professional Baseball home run hitters. In the sport of baseball, a home run is a hit in which the batter scores by circling all the bases and reaching home plate in one play, without the benefit of a fielding error. This can be accomplished either by hitting the ball out of play while it is still in fair territory (a conventional home run), or by an inside-the-park home run. Sadaharu Oh holds the Nippon Professional Baseball home run record (as well as the world lifetime home run record)Spatz, Lyle. Historical Dictionary of Baseball (Scarecrow Press, 2012), p. 169. with 868. He passed Hank Aaron (who is currently second on the Major League Baseball career home run list) with 755, on September 3, 1977.Whiting, Robert. "The Emperor of Swat," New York Times (AUG. 9, 2007). The only other NPB player to have hit 600 or even more home runs is Katsuya Nomura with 657. Slugger Noboru Aota retired in 1959 as the Japanese professional baseball career leader with 265 career homers. He was surpassed in 1963 by Kazuhiro Yamauchi, the first Japanese professional baseball player to hit 300 home runs."Yamauchi, NPB's 1st 300-HR man, dies at 76," Yomiuri Shimbun (Feb. 6, 2009). (Yamauchi finished his career with 396 home runs.) Sadaharu Oh assumed the top spot in 1968, later becoming the first NPB hitter to surpass 600 home runs during the 1974 season. Listed are all Nippon Professional Baseball players with 300 or more home runs hit during official regular season (i.e., excluding playoffs or exhibition games). Players in bold face are active as of the 2024 Nippon Professional Baseball season (including free agents).
List *denotes elected to Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.Bolddenotes active player. Stats updated as of 2025 season.
RankPlayer (2024 HRs)HRYears1 Sadaharu Oh *868 1959–19802 Katsuya Nomura *657 1954–19803 Hiromitsu Kadota *567 1970–19924 Koji Yamamoto *536 1969–19865Kazuhiro Kiyohara525 1985–20086 Hiromitsu Ochiai *510 1979–19987 Isao Harimoto *504 1959–19818 Sachio Kinugasa *504 1965–19879 Katsuo Osugi *486 1965–198310 Takeya Nakamura481 2003–present11 Tomoaki Kanemoto *476 1992–201212 Kōichi Tabuchi474 1969–198413 Masahiro Doi465 1962–198114 Tuffy Rhodes464 1996–2005, 2007–200915 Shigeo Nagashima *444 1958–197416 Koji Akiyama *437 1981, 1984–200217 Hiroki Kokubo413 1994–201218 Shinnosuke Abe4062001–201919 Norihiro Nakamura404 1992–201420 Takeshi Yamasaki403 1989–201321 Kazuhiro Yamauchi *396 1952–197022 Tatsunori Hara 382 1981–199522 Yasunori Oshima 382 1971–199424 Alex Ramírez *380 2001–201325 Michihiro Ogasawara3781997–201526 Shinichi Eto *3671959–197627 Akira Eto3641990–200928 Shuichi Murata3602003–201729 Alex Cabrera3572001–201230 Nobuhiko Matsunaka3521997–201531 Masayuki Kakefu3491974–198832 Michiyo Arito3481969–198633 Hideji Katō 3471969–198734 Tokuji Nagaike338 1966–197934 Masaru Uno338 1977–199436 Hideki Matsui *3321993–200237 Makoto Matsubara3311962–198138 Yoshinobu Takahashi3211998–201539 Kazuhiro Wada3191997–201539 Takahiro Arai319 1999–201841 Tetsuto Yamada311 2012–present42 Sho Nakata309 2009–202543 Katsumi Hirosawa3061985–200343 Hideto Asamura306 2010–present44 Takahiro Ikeyama3041984–200245 Nobuhiro Matsuda3012006–202345 Wladimir Balentien301 2011–2021
Notes
References
See also List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders List of Nippon Professional Baseball players with 1,000 runs batted in List of Nippon Professional Baseball career hits leaders List of Nippon Professional Baseball earned run average champions Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award
External links "Sadaharu Oh's 868 HRs Leads Japan League & World," The 500 Home Run Club