Top player agents

Ooo, that's a tough one. Most players in Japan don't have agents, and those that do, just use them as mediators for contract negotiations.

It's my understanding that most player endorcements are secured through the ball clubs. Orix had several standard contracts for all Ichiro endorsements ranging from using his photo on the cover of a book to TV commercials. I'm pretty sure that if you want an endorsement in uniform, that you have to talk with the team.

To contact the teams, please look here (scroll down to the followups for most current addresses).

Now, the big question is, do you want the most popular players or the "best"?

Either list would easilly start with the two Matsui's, one with the Giants, the other with the Lions. It won't take much searching to find information on these two.

The 1988 high school hero, Seibu's Matsuzaka, is extreamly popular. However, Matsuzaka is currently in an endorsement blackout for driving/parking violations last year. He did have an "advisory contract" with Mizuno for helping him with endorsements, but that contract was ended before the blackout as the boy wonder wanted to mix and match different makers' products on his own.

Lotte's Kuroki is very popular with the ladies. He's got a "nice boy next door" personna to him. And he's a great pitcher on top of that.

I think that Kintetsu's Rhodes and Nakamura would be a great combination for endorsements, both hitting over 40 homers so far this season. Kintetsu has been trying to sell Nakamura this year as the "face of the Pacific League." I know he's done some endorsements for ramen this year.

The two most popular catchers are Yakult's Furuta and Daiei's Johjima. Furuta has been considered the best catcher in Japan for almost a decade. (There's lots of information out there on him.) Johjima just hit his 30th home run last night, the first Pacific League catcher to do so since Nomura (currently managing the Tigers) did it in 1972. That also makes him join team mates Kokubo and Matsunaka to make a 30 home run trio, and with it, his 90th RBI joins the previous two plus Iguchi for a 90 RBI Hawk quartet.

Well, this is just a small sample of names that have been grabbing the headlines. Please don't consider it the definative guide. But it should help you get started.

Thank you, your information is excellent and helpful. When contacting the clubs, is there a specific department we should contact, ie PR or is there someone who handles individual player requests like this?

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that one. I've never had need to try to contact any team, representatives, and such procedures aren't covered in the newspaper.

You may want to try phoning (with someone who speaks Japanese) first to direct you to the correct department. Otherwise, I'm afraid you're on your own for that one.

Disclaimer: I'm not a businessman and don't know much about business practices. I'm a computer programmer who happens to be a baseball fan. Any business advice I give should be held in such a context. In other words, used with discression.

Nonetheless, I wish you well.

If you are still looking for players, please contact me.

Andrew Watkins
4366 Chevy Chase Dr
La Canada, CA 91011
818-790-5040
awatkins@best.com