The Japanese MLB Legacy Started by Hideo Nomo
How Hideo Nomo's 1995 MLB leap opened the door for Japanese players that followed.
In 1995, Hideo Nomo led the NL in strikeouts with the Dodgers — the first real breakthrough for Japanese players in MLB.
Before that, inter-league contract rules made it practically impossible for Japanese players to come over.
Nomo's success accelerated the creation of the posting system, and from 2000 onward many Japanese pitchers followed.
The lineage from Nomo to Ichiro, Matsui, Darvish, and now Ohtani traces back to that single act of courage.