PL Gakuen High School

Established in 1954 by a nondenominational church, PL Gakuen High School is a small school in Tondabayashi, Osaka known for its focus on baseball. Though the Koshien Tournament was around for 30 years before the high school was built, within 35 years it had set a Koshien record with 7 championships and had made the tournament 25 times. In a 2006 magazine devoted to the history of the Koshien Tournaments, PL Gakuen was voted the most successful high school program in Japan.

Koshien Titles

• 1978 Summer
• 1981 Spring
• 1982 Spring
• 1983 Summer
• 1985 Summer
• 1987 Spring
• 1987 Summer

Notable Alumni

• Keiji Abe, NPB infielder
• Hiromasa Arai, NPB outfielder
• Hisao Arakane, NPB outfielder
• Kosuke Fukudome, outfielder; All-Star
• Hisaaki Fukushima, NPB catcher
• Yuki Futaba, Japanese national team catcher
• Koji Hatate, Japanese national team infielder
• Yosuke Hiraishi, NPB infielder
• Toshiaki Imae, NPB infielder
• Makoto Imaoka, NPB infielder
• Yusaku Iriki, NPB and minor league pitcher
• Eiji Kanamori, NPB outfielder
• Akihito Kaneishi, NPB pitcher
• Atsushi Kataoka, NPB infielder
• Hideji Kato, NPB infielder and coach
• Masaki Kato, NPB outfielder
• Katsuhiko Kido, NPB catcher
• Kazuhiro Kiyohara, NPB infielder
• Takehiko Kobayakawa, NPB infielder
• Ryokan Kobayashi‎, CPBL pitcher
• Tetsuya Kokubo, NPB infielder
• Masumi Kuwata, pitcher
• Shingo Maeda, NPB infielder
• Katsuhiko Maekawa, NPB pitcher
• Kazuo Matsui, infielder
• Akira Matsumoto, Japanese national team outfielder
• Atsushi Matsuoka, Japanese national team infielder
• Shinya Miyamoto, NPB infielder
• Hiroyuki Mori, NPB catcher
• Shigeo Nagai, NPB infielder
• Keita Nakagawa, NPB outfielder
• Toshihiro Nakao, NPB outfielder
• Masayuki Nakatsuka, NPB outfielder
• Yuki Nakayama, Japanese national team infielder
• Satoshi Niimi, NPB pitcher
• Yoshiaki Nishikawa, NPB pitcher
• Hiroki Nomura, NPB pitcher
• Takeshi Nonogaki, NPB infielder
• Takao Obana, NPB pitcher
• Keisuke Okazaki, Japanese national team infielder
• Saburo Omura, NPB outfielder
• Shigeki Saito, Japanese national team infielder
• Kimihiro Sato, Japanese national team infielder
• Kazunori Tanaka, NPB outfielder
• Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, NPB infielder and manager; Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
• Yoshinori Toda, NPB pitcher
• Takahiro Tokutsu, NPB outfielder
• Shinsaburo Tsuboi, NPB infielder
• Tomochika Tsuboi, NPB outfielder
• Shinji Udaka, NPB pitcher
• Kosuke Ueyama, Japanese national team infielder
• Motoyasu Wakai, NPB infielder
• Shinya Yamamoto, Japanese national team infielder
• Kiyoshi Yamanaka, NPB catcher
• Akira Yonemura, NPB pitcher
• Sadaaki Yoshimura, NPB outfielder
• Hisataka Yukizawa, NPB infielder

Further Reading

• You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting, pp. 249-252