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)[1] 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.[2] 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.[3] (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).
| denotes elected to Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. | ||
| Bold | denotes active player. |
| Rank | Player (2024 HRs) | HR | Years | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sadaharu Oh * | 868 | 1959–1980 | |
| 2 | Katsuya Nomura * | 657 | 1954–1980 | |
| 3 | Hiromitsu Kadota * | 567 | 1970–1992 | |
| 4 | Koji Yamamoto * | 536 | 1969–1986 | |
| 5 | Kazuhiro Kiyohara | 525 | 1985–2008 | |
| 6 | Hiromitsu Ochiai * | 510 | 1979–1998 | |
| 7 | Isao Harimoto * | 504 | 1959–1981 | |
| 7 | Sachio Kinugasa * | 504 | 1965–1987 | |
| 9 | Katsuo Osugi * | 486 | 1965–1983 | |
| 10 | Tomoaki Kanemoto * | 476 | 1992–2012 | |
| 11 | Kōichi Tabuchi | 474 | 1969–1984 | |
| 12 | Takeya Nakamura | 471 | 2003–present | |
| 13 | Masahiro Doi | 465 | 1962–1981 | |
| 14 | Tuffy Rhodes | 464 | 1996–2005, 2007–2009 | |
| 15 | Shigeo Nagashima * | 444 | 1958–1974 | |
| 16 | Koji Akiyama * | 437 | 1981, 1984–2002 | |
| 17 | Hiroki Kokubo | 413 | 1994–2012 | |
| 18 | Shinnosuke Abe | 406 | 2001–2019 | |
| 19 | Norihiro Nakamura | 404 | 1992–2014 | |
| 20 | Takeshi Yamasaki | 403 | 1989–2013 | |
| 21 | Kazuhiro Yamauchi * | 396 | 1952–1970 | |
| 22 | 382 | 1981–1995 | ||
| 22 | 382 | 1971–1994 | ||
| 24 | Alex Ramírez * | 380 | 2001–2013 | |
| 25 | Michihiro Ogasawara | 378 | 1997–2015 | |
| 26 | Shinichi Eto * | 367 | 1959–1976 | |
| 27 | Akira Eto | 364 | 1990–2009 | |
| 28 | Shuichi Murata | 360 | 2003–2017 | |
| 29 | Alex Cabrera | 357 | 2001–2012 | |
| 30 | Nobuhiko Matsunaka | 352 | 1997–2015 | |
| 31 | Masayuki Kakefu | 349 | 1974–1988 | |
| 32 | Michiyo Arito | 348 | 1969–1986 | |
| 33 | Hideji Katō | 347 | 1969–1987 | |
| 34 | Tokuji Nagaike | 338 | 1966–1979 | |
| 34 | Masaru Uno | 338 | 1977–1994 | |
| 36 | Hideki Matsui * | 332 | 1993–2002 | |
| 37 | Makoto Matsubara | 331 | 1962–1981 | |
| 38 | Yoshinobu Takahashi | 321 | 1998–2015 | |
| 39 | Kazuhiro Wada | 319 | 1997–2015 | |
| 39 | Takahiro Arai | 319 | 1999–2018 | |
| 41 | Katsumi Hirosawa | 306 | 1985–2003 | |
| 42 | Takahiro Ikeyama | 304 | 1984–2002 | |
| 43 | Sho Nakata | 303 | 2009–present | |
| 44 | Nobuhiro Matsuda | 301 | 2006–2023 | |
| 44 | Wladimir Balentien | 301 | 2011–2021 | |