Definition and Records
A no-hitter requires a starting pitcher to complete a game allowing no hits and no runs, though walks and errors are permitted. NPB has recorded over 90 no-hitters since 1936. Eiji Sawamura and Yoshiro Sotokoba share the record with three each, with Sotokoba's second, on September 14, 1968, being a perfect game that included 16 strikeouts. Perfect games, requiring all 27 batters retired without any baserunner, have been achieved 16 times in NPB.
Historic No-Hitters
Hideo Fujimoto threw NPB's first perfect game in 1950. Hiromi Makihara's 1994 perfect game was broadcast nationally. Roki Sasaki's 2022 perfect game at age 20, with 19 strikeouts matching Koji Noda's NPB record and a new record of 13 consecutive, cemented his 'Reiwa Monster' status. Numerous 'phantom no-hitters' lost with two outs in the ninth underscore the achievement's difficulty.
Conditions for Achievement
No-hitters require peak pitcher condition, excellent defensive support, and favorable umpiring. Statistically, NPB has recorded 103 no-hitters since 1936 by 91 pitchers, including 16 perfect games. Spread across roughly 65,000 games in that span, that works out to about one every 600 to 700 games. With NPB playing approximately 860 games per season, the pace has been a little over one per year (as of August 2026).
No-Hitters in the 2020s
Declining complete games make solo no-hitters increasingly rare, yet the 2020s have not gone without them. On August 15, 2020, Yasuhiro Ogawa (Yakult) held Yokohama DeNA hitless. In 2022, Sasaki's perfect game was followed by no-hitters from Nao Higashihama (SoftBank), Shota Imanaga (Yokohama DeNA) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix), among others, and Yamamoto repeated the feat in 2023 for two straight seasons. Shuta Ishikawa (SoftBank) also held Seibu hitless on August 18, 2023. In 2024 Shosei Togo (Yomiuri Giants) shut out Hanshin and Daichi Osera (Hiroshima) blanked Lotte in interleague play, and in 2026 Haruki Hosono (Nippon-Ham) did the same against Lotte. Combined no-hitters by multiple pitchers are not credited as individual records, yet six SoftBank pitchers produced the first hitless, scoreless tie in NPB history on August 15, 2021, and three Yakult pitchers did the same on July 9, 2026. As specialization advances, finishing nine innings alone becomes an ever harsher condition, which is exactly why each solo no-hitter carries such value.
Comparison Between Pacific and Central League Achievements
No-hitter totals show no dramatic gap between NPB's two leagues, with broadly comparable totals on each side. From the 1950s through the 1970s achievements came in both leagues, notably the Central League's Sotokoba with Hiroshima and the Pacific League's Keishi Suzuki with Kintetsu in the late 1960s to early 1970s. In the Central League, Yomiuri pitchers accounted for multiple no-hitters, with Eiji Sawamura's three tying for the all-time record. The Pacific League's DH rule removes pitchers from the batting order, eliminating a weak spot in the opposing lineup but reducing pitcher fatigue. The Central League still uses no DH as of 2026, so its pitchers bat and create lineup vulnerabilities that slightly favor no-hitter attempts. These structural differences between leagues have influenced achievement difficulty across eras.
Ballpark Factors in No-Hitter Achievement
Ballpark characteristics influence no-hitter likelihood. Pitcher-friendly parks with deep outfield fences suppress extra-base hits. Tokyo Dome's lower ceiling is said to limit fly ball carry, while Koshien Stadium's sea breeze pushes right-field fly balls back. Conversely, Meiji Jingu Stadium's shorter foul lines favor hitters. Statistically, parks with spacious outfields correlate with more no-hitter occurrences. Mound firmness and slope angle also affect pitcher performance, with dedicated groundskeepers maintaining each park's mound to specific standards. Some pitchers perform markedly better at certain venues due to mound compatibility. While ballpark factors alone are not decisive, combined with peak pitcher condition they meaningfully shift the probability of a no-hitter being achieved.
International Comparison of No-Hitters
No-hitters are recorded across NPB, MLB, and KBO. MLB has logged over 300 since the 1880s, far exceeding NPB's 90-plus, largely because MLB's longer history and 2,430 annual games across 30 teams triple NPB's volume. KBO had produced only 14 no-hit pitchers as of 2017, decades after its 1982 founding. Achievement frequency fluctuates with each league's offensive or pitching-dominant eras. MLB totals swing widely from year to year, and several no-hitters sometimes cluster in a single season. A shared trend across NPB and MLB is that advancing pitcher specialization makes single-pitcher completions more difficult. The decline of complete games is a global phenomenon, and the rarity value of no-hitters is rising universally across professional baseball leagues.