Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he is much more than that at home in Japan. Ichiro is a wellspring of national pride — like Shohei Ohtani now — and his fame across the Pacific was therapeutic as the national economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades.

Ichiro Suzuki was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame 2025, securing 393 out of 394 votes. His near-perfect score sparked comments from Derek Jeter on voting accountability. Jeter, who faced a similar situation in 2020,

Ichiro received 99.7% of the vote, meaning just one Hall of Fame voter left him off their ballot. As such, former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera remains the only player to

Ichiro will be the first Japanese player enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame during the induction ceremony on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.