Sawamura Award

The Sawamura Award is given to the top pitcher in Nippon Pro Baseball annually. On a few rare occasions, no pitcher has been found worthy of winning, while on a couple occasions, two pitchers shared the award. The award is named in honor of Eiji Sawamura, the first great pitcher in Japanese baseball history. While many foreign players have won MVP Awards, only two have ever captured the Sawamura - Gene Bacque in 1964 and Kris Johnson in 2016.

The main seven standards used by the committee are 15 wins, a 2.50 ERA, 10 complete games, 200 innings, 150 strikeouts, 25 games and a .600 winning percentage.

Sawamura Award Winners

Year	Player	Team	G	W	L	IP	CG	SO	ERA
1947	Takehiko Bessho	Nankai Hawks	55	30	19	448.3	47	191	1.86
1948	Hiroshi Nakao	Yomiuri Giants	47	27	12	343	25	187	1.84
1949	Hideo Fujimoto	Yomiuri Giants	39	24	7	288	29	137	1.94
1950	Juzo Sanada	Shochiku Robins	61	39	12	395.7	28	191	3.05
1951	Shigeru Sugishita	Chunichi Dragons	58	28	13	290.3	15	147	2.35
1952	Shigeru Sugishita	Chunichi Dragons	61	32	14	355.7	25	160	2.33
1953	Takumi Otomo	Yomiuri Giants	43	27	6	281.3	22	173	1.85
1954	Shigeru Sugishita	Chunichi Dragons	63	32	12	395.3	27	273	1.39
1955	Takehiko Bessho	Yomiuri Giants	50	23	8	312	17	152	1.33
1956	Masaichi Kaneda	Kokutetsu Swallows	68	25	20	367.3	24	316	1.74
1957	Masaichi Kaneda	Kokutetsu Swallows	61	28	16	353	25	306	1.63
1958	Masaichi Kaneda	Kokutetsu Swallows	56	31	14	332.3	22	311	1.30
1959	Minoru Murayama	Hanshin Tigers	54	18	10	295.3	19	294	1.19
1960	Ritsuo Horimoto	Yomiuri Giants	69	29	18	364.7	26	210	2.00
1961	Hiroshi Gondo	Chunichi Dragons	69	35	19	429.3	32	310	1.70
1962	Masaaki Koyama	Hanshin Tigers	47	27	11	352.7	26	270	1.66
1963	Yoshiaki Ito	Yomiuri Giants	39	19	8	236.3	18	166	1.90
1964	Gene Bacque	Hanshin Tigers	46	29	9	353.3	24	200	1.89
1965	Minoru Murayama	Hanshin Tigers	39	25	13	307.7	26	205	1.96
1966	Minoru Murayama Tsuneo Horiuchi	Hanshin Tigers Yomiuri Giants	38 33	24 16	9 2	290.3 181.0	24 14	207 117	1.55 1.39
1967	Kentaro Ogawa	Chunichi Dragons	55	29	12	279.7	16	178	2.51
1968	Yutaka Enatsu	Hanshin Tigers	49	25	12	329	26	401	2.13
1969	Kazumi Takahashi	Yomiuri Giants	45	22	5	256	19	221	2.21
1970	Masaji Hiramatsu	Taiyo Whales	51	25	19	332.7	23	182	1.95
1971	Not awarded
1972	Tsuneo Horiuchi	Yomiuri Giants	48	26	9	312	26	203	2.91
1973	Kazumi Takahashi	Yomiuri Giants	45	23	13	306.3	24	238	2.21
1974	Senichi Hoshino	Chunichi Dragons	49	15	9	188	7	137	2.87
1975	Yoshiro Sotokoba	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	41	20	13	287	17	193	2.95
1976	Kojiro Ikegaya	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	51	20	15	290.3	18	207	3.26
1977	Shigeru Kobayashi	Yomiuri Giants	42	18	8	216.3	11	155	2.92
1978	Hiromu Matsuoka	Yakult Swallows	43	16	11	199.3	11	119	3.75
1979	Shigeru Kobayashi	Hanshin Tigers	37	22	9	273.7	17	200	2.89
1980	Not awarded
1981	Takashi Nishimoto	Yomiuri Giants	34	18	12	257.7	14	126	2.58
1982	Manabu Kitabeppu	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	36	20	8	267.3	19	184	2.43
1983	Kazuhiko Endo	Yokohama Taiyo Whales	36	18	9	238.3	16	186	2.87
1984	Not awarded
1985	Tatsuo Komatsu	Chunichi Dragons	33	17	8	210.3	14	172	2.65
1986	Manabu Kitabeppu	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	30	18	4	230	17	123	2.43
1987	Masumi Kuwata	Yomiuri Giants	28	15	6	207.7	14	151	2.17
1988	Yutaka Ono	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	24	13	7	185	14	183	1.70
1989	Masaki Saito	Yomiuri Giants	30	20	7	245	21	182	1.62
1990	Hideo Nomo	Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes	29	18	8	235	21	287	2.91
1991	Shinji Sasaoka	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	33	17	9	240	13	213	2.44
1992	Takehiro Ishii	Seibu Lions	27	15	3	148.3	8	123	1.94
1993	Shinji Imanaka	Chunichi Dragons	31	17	7	249	14	247	2.20
1994	Masahiro Yamamoto	Chunichi Dragons	29	19	8	214	14	148	3.49
1995	Masaki Saito	Yomiuri Giants	28	18	10	213	16	187	2.70
1996	Masaki Saito	Yomiuri Giants	25	16	4	187	8	158	2.36
1997	Fumiya Nishiguchi	Seibu Lions	32	15	5	207.7	10	192	3.12
1998	Kenjiro Kawasaki	Yakult Swallows	29	17	10	204.3	9	94	3.04
1999	Koji Uehara	Yomiuri Giants	25	20	4	197.7	12	179	2.09
2000	Not awarded
2001	Daisuke Matsuzaka	Seibu Lions	33	15	15	240.3	12	214	3.60
2002	Koji Uehara	Yomiuri Giants	26	17	5	204	8	182	2.60
2003	Kei Igawa Kazumi Saito	Hanshin Tigers Fukuoka Daiei Hawks	29 26	20 20	3 5	206 194	8 5	179 160	2.80 2.83
2004	Kenshin Kawakami	Chunichi Dragons	27	17	7	192.3	5	176	3.32
2005	Toshiya Sugiuchi	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	26	18	4	196.7	8	218	2.11
2006	Kazumi Saito	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	26	18	5	201	8	205	1.75
2007	Yu Darvish	Nippon Ham Fighters	26	15	5	207.7	12	210	1.82
2008	Hisashi Iwakuma	Rakuten Golden Eagles	28	21	4	201.7	5	159	1.87
2009	Hideaki Wakui	Seibu Lions	27	16	6	211.7	11	199	2.30
2010	Kenta Maeda	Hiroshima Carp	28	15	8	215.7	6	174	2.21
2011	Masahiro Tanaka	Rakuten Golden Eagles	27	19	5	226.3	14	241	1.27
2012	Tadashi Settsu	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	27	17	5	193.3	3	153	1.91
2013	Masahiro Tanaka	Rakuten Golden Eagles	28	24	0	212	8	183	1.27
2014	Chihiro Kaneko	Orix Buffaloes	26	16	5	191	4	199	1.98
2015	Kenta Maeda	Hiroshima Carp	29	15	8	206.3	5	175	2.09
2016	Kris Johnson	Hiroshima Carp	26	15	7	180.3	3	141	2.15
2017	Tomoyuki Sugano	Yomiuri Giants	25	17	5	187.3	6	171	1.59
2018	Tomoyuki Sugano	Yomiuri Giants	28	15	8	202	10	200	2.14
2019	Not awarded
2020	Yudai Ono	Yomiuri Giants	20	11	6	148.7	10	148	1.82
2021	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	Orix Buffaloes	26	18	5	193.7	6	206	1.39
2022	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	Orix Buffaloes	26	15	5	193	4	205	1.68
2023	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	Orix Buffaloes	23	16	6	164	2	169	1.21