Korean Japanese Baseball Legend Jang Hun Dies at 86

Tokyo: Korean Japanese baseball legend Jang Hun, the all-time hits leader in Japanese professional baseball history, has died at 86. The Golden Players Club, an exclusive body honoring elite Japanese baseball players, announced Jang passed away Wednesday morning at a hospital in Tokyo. According to Yonhap News Agency, Jang was born in Hiroshima to Korean parents in 1940 and played for 23 seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) from 1959 to 1981. He still holds the league's record with 3,085 career hits and remains the only player in NPB history with over 3,000 hits. Jang, known by his Japanese name Isao Harimoto, also launched 504 home runs and drove in 1,676 runs, ranking seventh and fourth on the all-time list, respectively. His lifetime batting average of .319 placed him in third place. He won seven Pacific League batting titles, one league MVP award, and the 1959 Pacific League Rookie of the Year award, while earning 18 All-Star selections. Jang held Korean citizenship throughout his career b ut stated in a media interview in December 2024 that he had received Japanese citizenship several years ago. The former outfielder served as a special adviser to the commissioner of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) from its inaugural year in 1982 to 2005. In 2007, he received the Mugunghwa Medal, the highest in the Order of Civil Merit, from the South Korean government.