He was the first player in Japanese pro baseball to achieve 2,000 hits and was named the league's MVP three times.

After the game, Kawakami grabbed a handful of dirt from the playing field of Kōshien Stadium and put it in his uniform pocket as a memento.

Since then, as a memento of their fleeting time on the hallowed grounds of Kōshien, players from the losing teams take home a pouch of the precious soil.

Kawakami signed with the Giants as a pitcher/first baseman, and actually pitched in 39 games between 1938 and 1941, compiling 11 wins against 9 losses, with an excellent 2.61 ERA.

Kawakami was a strong advocate for keeping the league exclusively Asian only while having a strategy of "controlled baseball" with his players.