Isao Harimoto (張本 勲, Harimoto Isao; June 19, 1940 – September 9, 2026) was a Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball player. Over his 23-season playing career in Nippon Professional Baseball, Harimoto played for the Toei Flyers/Nittaku Home Flyers/Nippon-Ham Fighters, the Yomiuri Giants and the Lotte Orions. He is the holder of the record for most hits in the Japanese professional leagues. An ethnic Korean, his birth name was Jang Hun (Korean: 장훈; Hanja: 張勳). Harimoto spent his life as a resident of Japan and adopted a Japanese name, but remained a Korean citizen, thus making him a Zainichi Korean for many years. An accident from youth forced Harimoto into becoming a left-hander, and when he became interested in baseball, he dedicated himself to adjust to playing the field and batting that resulted in him making the majors in 1959. As a rookie, he batted .275 in 125 games with 115 hits on his way to being named the Pacific League Rookie of the Year. His career furthered the following season, where he earned his first All-Star selection and Best Nine Award. In the entire decade of the 1960s, he was named among the Best Nine in every season. He won the batting title in 1961, batting .336 while collecting 159 hits and 24 home runs. He had the first of his four 30-HR seasons in 1962, which saw the Flyers win their first ever Pacific League pennant along him winning the league MVP Award. The Flyers won their first Japan Series that year in seven games for what ended up being Harimoto's first and only championship. Harimoto would continue to rack up All-Star selections and batting championships for the team, which included seven total batting championships from 1961 to 1974 before he was traded in 1975 to the Yomiuri Giants. He was named to the Best Nine two further times with the Giants, with his 16th and final one occurring in 1977 at the age of 37. He departed the team for the Lotte Orions in 1980 on the precipice of Japanese history. That season, he became the first player in Japanese baseball history with 3,000 career hits, doing so in May. He later hit his 500th career home run that year to become the first Japanese player with 500 home runs and 300 stolen bases. One of the most well-rounded hitters in NPB history, in 23 seasons of play, he had sixteen 20-HR seasons along with five seasons of at least 20 stolen bases while batting .300 in sixteen different seasons. He was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990 and during his post-playing career worked as a television baseball analyst.
Source: “Isao Harimoto”, English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), excerpt