Happy New Year! The zodiac sign for 2026 is the horse. We'll introduce you to the players under contract for the six Pacific League teams who were born in the year of the horse.

*Applies to players who have been announced as contracted players for the 2026 season as of December 21, 2025.

Players born between January and December 2002 (Heisei 14)

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham: pitcher Haruki Hosono pitcher Tamon Asari, Kotaro Yamashiro, Yuya Shindo Shindo, Hide Shu Yamagata, pitcher Ryohei Hosokawa

pitcher Rakuten Eagles: pitcher Haruto Nakagomi, Uchi Seiryu, Daiki Irie, Tsubasa Yoshino Yoshino

Saitama Seibu Lions: Takeru Furuichi, Takayoshi Yamamura Taiyo Sato Seiya Watanabe, Kanshin Hayashi, Yuta Nakamikawa, Shinya Hasegawa, Yushin Kawada

Chiba Lotte Marines: pitcher Shunsuke Nakamori, Koshiro Hiroike, pitcher Fuji, pitcher, pitcher Daito Yamamoto

Orix Buffaloes: pitcher Shumpeita Yamashita, Naruki Teranishi pitcher Raiku Katayama pitcher Kento Kawase, Kotaro Kobayashi, Yusuke Mugitani, Ryoto Kita Kita

Fukuoka Softbank: pitcher Shun Antoku, Ryo Oyama, players Shoji Yudai Shoji, Akihiro Yuto, pitcher Yoshiyasu Sasakawa

This year marks the second year of Saitama Seibu Lions 's Seiya Watanabe 's professional career. In his rookie year, he competed for the hitter title early in the season and made his first appearance in the All-Star Game. Despite suffering an injury along the way, he played in 109 games and hit 12 Home Run. Will he be able to earn a spot in the starting starting line-up for the opening game for the second consecutive year, or will he be able to surpass last year's Home Run total? It will be exciting to watch this "Young Lion" continue to grow in 2026.

Orix Buffaloes pitcher Shumpeita Yamashita who only made four appearances and won one game last year, is also a man of the year. I hope this season will be a season of complete recovery.

Also among the new recruits are Saitama Seibu Lions 's sixth draft pick, Kawada Yuushin, and Chiba Lotte Marines 's fifth and seventh draft pitcher, pitcher Fuji Hayato and Yamato, both born in 2002. Expect to see these three players, all from amateur baseball, perform as rookies ready to hit the ground running.

Players born between January and December 1990 (Heisei 2)

Northeast Rakuten Eagles: Wataru Karashima pitcher, Hideto Asamura Players

Orix Buffaloes Masahiro Nishino Players

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham, Saitama Seibu Lions, Chiba Lotte Marines, Fukuoka Softbank are not applicable

Tohoku Rakuten Eagles Hideto Asamura Last year, he reached 2000 hit in his professional career. He is currently ranked 48th on the all-time list with 2,043 hit, and it will be interesting to see how far he will go in 2026 to reach the number of hit. Orix Buffaloes The players are the longest-serving members of the team's Masahiro Nishino The oldest player on the team at fielder, he recorded 7 Home Run 35 RBI last season, the most in his professional career. His batting ability to take chances is sure to continue to attract more players.

In addition, Takahiro Norimoto pitcher and Nao Higashihama pitcher, who have been publicly announced as free agent declared players, were also born in 1990. We will keep an eye on their future developments to see if they will make a leap forward in the year of the Noon.

Past winning teams in the Year of the Horse

Next, we will introduce the teams that have won the championship or become number one in the Japan Series in the past "Year of the Horse." Including their predecessors, The Lions have won the league championship three times and become number one in the Japan Series once, while The Hawks have won the league championship twice and become number one in the Japan Series once.

In 1990, Saitama Seibu Lions won the league with a record of 81 wins, 45 losses, and 4 ties, a winning percentage of .643. They won the Japan Series against The Giants, winning four straight games from the first game onwards, and became champions of Japan. The MVP and Rookie of the Year that year were Hideo Nomo (Kintetsu Buffaloes), who recorded 18 wins, 8 losses, and 287 strike out.

In 2014, Fukuoka Softbank and Orix Buffaloes fought a fierce battle. Many people remember the scene where Fukuoka Softbank defeated Orix Buffaloes with a extra inning walk-off win in extra innings and won the league championship. In the Japan Series, they faced Hanshin Tigers who had risen from second place in the league. Although they lost the first game, they won four games in a row from the second game onwards and became the champions of Japan.

In 2026, the players born this year will surely run across the ground with the strength of a horse and show us their energetic side. Look forward to the exciting Pacific League games this year as well!