Junichi Fukura

Junichi Fukura (福良 淳一)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 160 lb.

• High School Nobeoka Kogyo High School

• Born May 28, 1960 in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Junichi Fukura has played and managed in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Fukura was drafted by the Hankyu Braves in the sixth round of the 1984 NPB draft. He spent the first years of his career mainly in the NPB Farm Leagues, and made his NPB debut on April 23, 1985. Fukura collected his first hit with the big club, off Kazuhiro Yamauchi, on May 13, and ended up hitting .250/.368/.250 in his rookie year. He took the everyday second baseman spot from Yoshihiro Iwamoto the next year and batted .309/.385/.475. He lost the 1986 NPB Rookie of the Year Award to Kazuhiro Kiyohara. The Miyazaki native regressed a little in 1987 and recorded a .263/.343/.369 batting line in this season. He played all 130 games and led the league in hit-by-pitch with 12.

1988 was Fukura's career year. He started in Game 1 and Game 2 of the 1988 NPB All-Star Games, pinch-hit for Hiroyuki Yoshida late in Game 3 but recorded a 0-for-7 in the whole event. He ended up batting .320/.395/.422, ranked 4th in batting average (.007 behind Hideaki Takazawa) and 7th in runs. He also won his first Best Nine award as a second baseman. Fukura suffered from a left shoulder injury and missed a month in 1989, which caused his batting line fall to .259/.369/.360. He fractured his right hand twice in 1990, and only played 53 games in that season.

Fukura came back in 1991 and batted .273/.358/.332 and .284/.368/.364 respectively in the next two years. He played all 130 games again in 1993 season, recorded a .267/.361/.320 batting line and led the league in sacrifice bunts with 31. Fukura set the NPB record for 804 consecutive fielding chances without an error as a second baseman from April 28, 1993 to July 31, 1994. He hit .301/.387/.389, won the Best Nine again, but lost the NPB Gold Glove award to Hatsuhiko Tsuji. He tore his ACL in June 8, 1995 and missed nearly the entire 1995 season. He recovered in the next year and batted .284/.350/.322. After only hitting .215/.320/.243 in 1997, the veteran infielder announced his retirement, and became a coach. He was the defense coach for the Orix Blue Wave in the "ni-gun" from 1998 to 2000, and turned into a scout from 2001 to 2004. He transferred to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and served as their head coach from 2008 to 2012. In 2013 season, Fukura came back to the Orix Buffaloes and served as head coach until 2014. When their manager Hiroshi Moriwaki quit in 2015 season, Fukura succeeded him and managed the Buffaloes for 4 years. However, Fukura couldn't led the team to the A-Class, and Norifumi Nishimura replaced him after 2018. The Buffaloes then named Fukura to become their General Manager from 2019 to present(2023).

Overall, Fukura had hit .279/.366/.366 with 50 home runs in 13 seasons in NPB.