Atsunori Inaba, who was the director of the Japan National Baseball Team at the Tokyo Olympics, will be appointed as the general manager of professional baseball Nippon-Ham, according to interviews with the people concerned.
Nippon-Ham finished in 5th place for the second consecutive year until last year, and while it is sluggish at the bottom with 3 games left this season, it is proceeding with the creation of a new system, including the change of manager.
And I learned from interviews with the people concerned that Mr. Inaba will replace the current Mr. Hiroshi Yoshimura as the general manager who will be in charge of team formation.
Inaba is 49 years old.
He joined Yakult from Hosei University in 3rd place in the draft and transferred to Nippon-Ham in 2005.
Then, the following year, as a mainstay, he made a major contribution to Nippon-Ham's number one in Japan for the first time in 44 years.
In addition to being the top hitter in his personal title, in 2012 he achieved a total of 2000 hits, the 39th in history.
After retiring from active duty in 2014, I was a sports community officer who is responsible for cooperation with the local community at Nippon-Ham.
Mr. Inaba took over as coach of the Japanese national team four years ago and led him to win the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics this year.
At Nippon-Ham, it has been decided that Hideki Kuriyama, who has led the team for 10 years until this season, will retire, and Mr. Inaba has been named as a candidate for successor, but he will be in charge of team formation with a new system. I will join.
In addition, the appointment of Hanshin, Nippon-Ham, and 49-year-old Tsuyoshi Shinjo, who played in the major leagues, is being considered as a candidate for director.