This is a list of the players who have reached the free agency plateau in Japan. While this doesn’t mean all of these players will declare free agency or end up with other clubs, it does mean they are eligible to do so if they choose.

After the final game of the upcoming Japan Series (Game 7 would be Nov. 4) players have seven working days to declare their intentions.

At that point the commissioner’s office will publish a list of declaring free agents and teams both in Japan and abroad may start negotiating with the free agents.

Some the players on this list will resign with their teams and some will retire. Of course for some it means they will be eligible to pursue contracts in MLB, as is the likely  case with Kuroda Hiroki. Don’t be misled by the 50/50 talk.

Naturally, the biggest name on the list is Fukudome Kosuke, and we already profiled Kuroda below. But there are several others to keep an eye on (in no particular order): Miura Daisuke, Shimoyanagi Tsuyoshi, Iwase Hitoki, Kobayashi Masahide,  Kobayashi Masahide, and Takahashi Yoshinobu.

But that’s just for starters. This is still very early in the process and there will be some surprises once  the commisioner’s office releases its list.    

All player profiles via Japanesebaseball.com

Yomiuri Giants:

Ohmichi Noriyoshi
Kimura Takuya
Maeda Yukinaga
Kosaka Makoto  
Tani Yoshitomo
Takahashi Yoshinobu

Chunichi Dragons:

Inoue Kazuki
Ueda Yoshinori
Yamamoto Masahiro          
Tomori (Denny) Yui      
Iwase Hitoki                  
Hirai Masafuji
Fukudome Kosuke
Watanabe Hiroyuki

Shimoyanagi Tsuyoshi

Hanshin Tigers:

Imaoka Makoto                  
Hiyama Shinjiro              
Shimoyanagi Tsuyoshi

Yokohama BayStars:

Ishii Takuro                    
Kudoh Kimiyasu                
Saeki Takahiro                  
Taneda Hitoshi                
Suzuki Takanori                
Kawakami Takeo                
Miura Daisuke

Hiroshima Carp:

Ogata Koichi                    
Sasaoka Shinji                  
Takahashi Ken                    
Maeda Tomonori                  
Kuroda Hiroki      
Arai Takahiro  

Yakult Swallows:  

Furuta Atsuya                  
Miyamoto Shinya              
Ishii Kazuhisa                

Nippon-Ham Fighters :

Kaneko Makoto                    
Tanaka Yukio                      
Nakajima Satoshi

Kobayashi Masahide

Lotte Marines:

Hori Koichi                      
Ohmura Saburo                  
Fukuura Kazuya                
Kobayashi Masahide        
Komiyama Satoru              
Takagi Koji                    
Fujita Soichi                
Yabuta Yasuhiko              

Soft Bank Hawks:

Shibahara Hiroshi          
Honma Mitsuru          
Matsunaka Nobuhiko

Rakuten Golden Eagles:

Kawamoto Yasuyuki          
Sekikawa Koichi              
Yoshida Toyohiko            
Isobe Koichi                    
Ogura Hisashi                  
Yamasaki Takeshi  
Yoshioka Yuji
Fukumori Kazuo  

Seibu Lions:

Ishii Takashi                  
Etoh Akira                        
Takagi Hiroyuki              
Nishiguchi Fumiya            
Wada Kazuhiro    

Orix Buffaloes:

Kiyohara Kazuhiro          
Mizuguchi Eiji                
Tuffy Rhodes                    
Yoshida Shuji                  
Kitagawa Hirotoshi          
Muramatsu Arihito