The Japan Baseball Federation finalized their national team roster for the Olympic Games in Beijing this August. The 24 professional players are exclusively from the Japanese Baseball Leagues with pitching prospect Yu Darvish the most known outside of Japan, as several American Major League organizations are scouting his development. Japan finished in third place in the Olympics 2004 in Athens. They never were ranked lower than fourth since baseball became an official medal sport in 1992. However they are still waiting for their first gold medal. They will face one of the toughest tasks already on opening day, when they are facing Cuba.
Complete Roster:
Pitchers: Koji Uehara (Yomiuri Giants), Kenshin Kawakami, Hitoki Iwase (Chunichi Dragons), Kyuji Fujikawa (Hanshin Tigers), Yu Darvish (Nippon Ham Fighters), Yoshihisa Naruse (Lotte Marines),
Tsuyoshi Wada, Toshiya Sugiuchi (Softbank Hawks), Masahiro Tanaka (Rakuten Eagles), Hideaki Wakui (Seibu Lions)
Catchers: Shinnosuke Abe (Yomiuri Giants), Akihiro Yano (Hanshin Tigers), Tomoya Satozaki (Lotte Marines)
Infielders: Masahiro Araki (Chunichi Dragons), Takahiro Arai (Hanshin Tigers), Shuichi Murata (Yokohama BayStars), Shinya Miyamoto (Yakult Swallows), Tsuyoshi Nishioka (Lotte Marines), Munenori Kawasaki (Softbank Hawks), Hiroyuki Nakajima (Seibu Lions)
Outfielders: Masahiko Morino (Chunichi Dragons), Norichika Aoki (Yakult Swallows), Atsunori Inaba (Nippon Ham Fighters), Takahiko G.G. Sato (Seibu Lions)