Munetaka Murakami Japanese Baseball Player From Kumamoto

Early life

Munetaka Murakami was born on 2 February 2000 in Kumamoto, Japan, and stands 188 centimetres tall. He took up baseball at the age of five. In high school he attended Kyushū Gakuin Integrated High School, where he started at first base and batted in the cleanup spot. The school reached the 2015 Koshien tournament in his first year but lost in the opening round. He hit 52 home runs during his high school career, which earned him the nickname "Babe Ruth of Higo", Higo being the old name for Kumamoto Prefecture.

Career

Murakami received little national exposure in high school, yet in the first round of the 2017 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) draft he was selected by three clubs: the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, the Yomiuri Giants and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. The Swallows won the lottery and signed him, and he was given the jersey number 55.

In 2018 he spent most of the year in the minor-league Eastern League, where he finished with a .288 average, 17 home runs and 70 runs batted in. He made his top-team debut on 16 September against the Hiroshima Carp as the starting third baseman and homered in his first at-bat. He won both the Eastern League MVP and Rookie of the Year awards that autumn.

The 2019 season was his breakthrough. At 19 he became the youngest Swallows player to start an opening-day game. He was voted into his first All-Star Game and, in August, became the youngest NPB player to hit a walk-off home run. He played in all 143 of the team's games and led the club with 36 home runs, matching the NPB record for a second-year player. He was named Central League Rookie of the Year.

In 2021 he led the Central League with 39 home runs, drove in 112 runs, drew 106 walks and won the league's Most Valuable Player award. In the Japan Series he hit two home runs as the Swallows won their first title in twenty years.

His 2022 season became the most celebrated of his career in Japan. He was the first NPB player to hit home runs in five consecutive plate appearances. On 13 September he reached 55 home runs, tying Sadaharu Oh for the most in a season by a Japanese player. He hit his 56th on the final day of the regular season, 3 October, passing Oh's mark for a Japanese-born player. He also won the NPB Triple Crown, the first position player to do so since 2004 and, at 22, the youngest ever, and he was voted Central League MVP unanimously. The fan nickname "Murakami-sama", implying a feat only a god could manage, was chosen as Japan's word of the year for 2022.

After that season he agreed to a three-year contract extension at 600 million yen per year, with a clause requiring the Swallows to post him to Major League Baseball after 2025. His production dipped in 2023 and 2024, and he played 65 games in 2025, hitting 22 home runs. He was posted on 7 November 2025.

On 21 December 2025 he signed a two-year, 34 million dollar contract with the Chicago White Sox. He made his MLB debut on 26 March 2026 and homered in each of his first three games, a first for the White Sox and the fourth such start in MLB history. On 1 May he led the majors with 13 home runs, and by 4 May he had hit 14 before his first double, a record for a start to a career. In July he was named to the American League All-Star team as a replacement for Byron Buxton and took part in the Home Run Derby, where he was eliminated in the first round.

Recognition

Murakami's honours include the Nippon Professional Baseball Rookie of the Year Award in 2019, the Best Nine Award in 2020 and the Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award in 2021. He was also selected as an MLB All-Star in 2026.

Public roles

Murakami played for Japan at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in 2021, where the host team won the gold medal. At the 2023 World Baseball Classic he struggled for much of the tournament, but in the semifinal against Mexico he hit a walk-off two-run double for a 6-5 win. In the final against the United States, he opened the bottom of the second inning with a home run off Merrill Kelly, and Japan won 3-2 for its third title. He played in the 2026 tournament as well, hitting a grand slam against Czechia, before Japan lost to the eventual champions, Venezuela, in the knockout round.