Japan Series Most Valuable Player Award

The Japan Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award (日本シリーズ最高殊勲選手, Nippon Shirīzu Saikō Shukun Senshu) is given to the player deemed to have the most impact on his team's performance in the Japan Series, which is the final round of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) postseason.

Hideki Matsui and Norihiro Nakamura are they only two Japan Series MVPs to play in Major League Baseball (MLB).

Sixteen of the 60[needs update] Japan Series MVPs have also won the NPB MVP or the Eiji Sawamura Award in the same season.

Two players won the Eiji Sawamura Award and the Japan Series MVP in the same season: Takehiko Bessho (1955) and Takashi Nishimoto (1981).

Ten players have won the Japan Series MVP in the same season in which they won the NPB MVP: Betto (1950), Bessho (1952), Kazuhisa Inao (1958), Tadashi Sugiura (1959), Shigeo Nagashima (1963), Stanka (1964), Hisashi Yamada (1977), Randy Bass (1985), Tom O'Malley (1995), Furuta (1997) and Matsui (2000).

An Asian male wearing a gray uniform with the lettering "NEW YORK" across it, in his after-swing pose.
Hideki Matsui won the 2000 Japan Series MVP with the Yomiuri Giants . He went on to win the 2009 World Series MVP with MLB 's New York Yankees .