title: List of top Nippon Professional Baseball strikeout pitchers
text: # List of top Nippon Professional Baseball strikeout pitchers
  
  The following is a list of Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers who have recorded at least 2,000 strikeouts. In baseball, a strikeout occurs when the batter receives three strikes during his time at bat. Strikeouts are associated with dominance on the part of the pitcher and failure on the part of the batter.
  
  Masaichi Kaneda has the most career strikeouts in Nippon Professional Baseball. During a 19-year career, he struck out 4,490 batters.
  
  ## The List
  
  | † | Denotes elected to Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. |
  | - | - |
  | Bold | Denotes active player. |
  
  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 |
  