Hitoki Iwase was a Chunichi relief pitcher from 1999 through 2018. From 2004 to 2014 he was a closer, and he collected 407 saves in his career (thereby qualifying for the Meikyukai). He holds Japan’s all-time record for saves.
Iwase was good, as a career 2.31 ERA attests. It is, however, important to remember that relief pitchers always have lower ERAs (on average) than do starting pitchers. Popular speculation is that this is because they can put everything they’ve got into each pitch, knowing that they’re only going to pitch an inning or two. And as you expect from a relief pitcher, Iwase didn’t pitch much. He totaled 985 innings pitched in 1005 games (so, even less than one inning per appearance). My guess is that 2002 was his best season. That year Iwase posted a career-best 1.06 ERA over 59 innings. A few years earlier he did pitch 80 innings to the tune of 1.90 ERA, and while that mark is very good, it’s still almost double his 2002 figure. In 2002 he was still pitching in middle relief – he was setting up for Eddie Gaillard, who was mostly unsuccessful in a short MLB career, but who would go on to have three solid years pitching in Nagoya. Gaillard left the team (probably traded?) mid-way through 2003, but Iwase still didn’t get the closing gig. Akinori Otsuka took over after Gaillard left. I’m not convinced that Otsuka was a better option than Iwase, but, anyways, the next year Otsuka went to pitch for the Padres and Iwase finally got the top spot in the Dragons’ bullpen. And ‘finally’ is a good word to use here: Iwase was 29 when he inherited the spot. He would pitch until he was 43.
Maybe the hesitancy involved in giving him the closers spot was due to the that he’s left handed. Left handed pitchers are usually at a platoon disadvantage, and managers seems to be loath to give up the platoon advantage when bringing in a relief pitcher. If he’s good enough (e.g. Aroldis Chapman) it can, however, be worthwhile.
Iwase was a part of the first Dragons team to win the Japan Series in half a century in 2007. He was, during the series, brought in as a relief pitcher in the 9th inning of a perfect game. I can’t imagine the guts involved in removing a pitcher in the 9th inning of a perfect game. (Or even what the manager must be thinking. It’s not like the guy has painted himself into a corner or something – there’s nobody on base! He must have just really lost his command or was visibly tired or something. It was Hiromitsu Ochiai managing, if somebody is going to do something daring and controversial, it's him.) Anyhow, it ended well. Iwase did not allow a runner, preserved the perfect game, and won the Series. The Dragons were good during his time with them, appearing in the Japan Series six times. They managed, however, to win only in 2007.
Meikyukai:
Yes – Hall of fame:
No
2002 BBM