Isao Harimoto

Isao Harimoto was born on 19 June 1940 in Hiroshima to a Korean family that had recently relocated from Changnyeong on the Korean Peninsula for work. His birth name was Jang Hun (also romanized Chang Hun). At about age four he suffered catastrophic burns to his right hand after falling into a fire while dodging a backing truck. The injury froze fingers into a curled grip, forced him to become a left-handed thrower and hitter, and led to a custom glove for the rest of his career. On 6 August 1945 the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. The family home, shielded by a mountain about 2.3 kilometers from the hypocenter, spared the young boy physical blast injuries, but his eldest sister died from the bombing. His father later returned to Korea to settle affairs and never came back. His mother raised the surviving children in hard poverty. Harimoto would later be identified as the only atomic-bomb survivor to play Nippon Professional Baseball, and from middle age onward he spoke publicly as a hibakusha against nuclear weapons.

Baseball began in elementary school. He moved to Osaka's Naniwa Commercial High School, endured discriminatory treatment that cost him a cherished Koshien chance, and still reached the pros. In 1959 the Toei Flyers signed him. He won Pacific League Rookie of the Year, then became the league's signature contact-and-power outfielder: seven batting titles (tied for the NPB record with Ichiro Suzuki), nine on-base titles, sixteen Best Nine selections, and the 1962 Pacific League MVP on the Flyers' first Japan Series championship team. Broadcasters called him the "hit machine" for a high, tilted stance and spray-chart swing that laced balls to all fields.

He stayed with the franchise through its Nittaku Home and Nippon-Ham Fighters identities, then joined the Yomiuri Giants from 1976 to 1979, batting behind Sadaharu Oh and standing on deck when Oh passed Hank Aaron's home-run mark. In 1980, with the Lotte Orions, he became the first player in Japanese baseball history to reach 3,000 career hits, doing so with a home run on 28 May 1980. That same season he also reached 500 home runs, completing a rare 3,000-hit / 500-homer / 300-steal career later compared only to Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez among major-league peers. He retired after 1981 with NPB records that still define the craft of hitting in Japan: 3,085 hits, .319 average, 504 home runs, 1,676 RBIs, and 319 stolen bases across 2,752 games. He entered the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990. Ichiro later passed his combined Japan-plus-MLB hit total, but Harimoto remains the sole member of NPB's 3,000-hit club.

After playing he became one of Japan's most recognizable baseball voices, especially on TBS's Sunday Morning "weekly opinion" desk, where his catchphrases "Appare!" (splendid) and "Kats!" (a scolding "drink!") made him a national sports character for roughly two decades. He also advised early Korean baseball organization-building, received South Korea's Order of Sport Merit Maengho Medal after 3,000 hits, and in 2007 the Mugunghwa Medal for service to Korean and Zainichi communities. In December 2024 he told Sankei Shimbun he had taken Japanese citizenship several years earlier. He threw ceremonial first pitches into his eighties, including a widely photographed Tokyo Dome appearance on 28 May 2024, and pinch-hit to cheers at the Suntory Dream Match in July 2026.

Isao Harimoto died on 9 September 2026 at about 5 p.m. in a Tokyo hospital at age 86. The Japan Professional Baseball Golden Players Club (Meikyukai) announced the death the next day, calling him the "hit machine" and a founding-era Meikyukai member whose batting and blunt commentary left an indelible mark. Cause of death was not made public in the Meikyukai, Kyodo, TBS, or Sponichi notices reviewed for this memorial. Resting place and funeral details were likewise not published in those primary obituaries.

This memorial is for Isao Harimoto (Japanese: 張本勲; birth name Jang Hun / Chang Hun, 張勲 / 장훈; Wikidata Q482958), the NPB outfielder and hits leader. It is not for table-tennis athletes Tomokazu Harimoto or Miwa Harimoto, and not for unrelated people sharing the surname 張本.