List of top Nippon Professional Baseball strikeout pitchers
The List
A player is considered "inactive" if he has not played baseball for one year or has announced his retirement. Stats updated as of the end of 2015 season.

List of top Nippon Professional Baseball strikeout pitchers

Section Title: The List
Table Section Text: A player is considered "inactive" if he has not played baseball for one year or has announced his retirement. Stats updated as of the end of 2015 season.

Rank	Player (R/L)	K	Years pitched

1	Masaichi Kaneda (L) †	4,490	1950–1969

2	Tetsuya Yoneda (R) †	3,388	1956–1977

3	Masaaki Koyama (R) †	3,159	1953–1973

4	Keishi Suzuki (L) †	3,061	1966–1985

5	Yutaka Enatsu (L)	2,987	1967–1984

6	Takao Kajimoto (L) †	2,945	1954–1973

7	Kimiyasu Kudoh (L) †	2,852	1981–2010

8	Kazuhisa Inao (R) †	2,574	1956–1969

9	Choji Murata (R) †	2,363	1968–1990

10	Masahiro Yamamoto (L)	2,310	1986–2015

11	Minoru Murayama (R) †	2,271	1959–1972

12	Shoichi Ono (L)	2,244	1956–1970

13	Toshiya Sugiuchi (L)	2,156	2002–2015

14	Hiromi Makihara (R)	2,111	1983–2001

15	Kazuhisa Kawaguchi (L)	2,092	1981–1998

16	Hisashi Yamada (R) †	2,058	1969–1988

17	Nobuyuki Hoshino (L)	2,041	1984–1999

18	Hiromu Matsuoka (R)	2,008	1968–1985

Sentence(s)

Masaichi Kaneda struck out 4,490 batters.

final_sentence: Masaichi Kaneda struck out 4,490 batters.