In May of 2018 the MLB announced that they would be sending an All Star Team to Japan to play exhibition games against other Japanese professional baseball teams. Including many stars such as Yadier Molina, Ronald Acuna Jr., Whit Merrifield, and Juan Soto the MLB team looked to be stacked. This is the 13th time the MLB has made the All Star series in Japan and the first time since 2014. The MLB All Stars have not won the series since 2006 when they swept the Japan team in the 5 game series. The MVP of that series was Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies.

This will open the gateway as the MLB’s first game of the 2019 season will be played in Japan between the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners. But for now MLB had an all star team play Japan’s Samurai Japan. In October every team the Samurai, Chinese Taipei, and MLB all star team announced their rosters. Many players did not participate as roster size was 29 people, the biggest blow was reigning 2018 National League MVP Christian Yelich who on October 29th said he would not be participating.

In the exhibition games the Samurai lost a close game to the Chinese Taipei 6-5 in the Fukuoka Stadium. The MLB All Stars beat the Yomiuri Giants 9-6 in Tokyo Dome.

For the main event the MLB All Stars played the Samurai for 6 games in multiple stadiums around Japan. In the first game on November 9th the Samurai beat the MLB All Stars 7-6 in the Tokyo Dome to take the 1-0 advantage. In the second game also in the Tokyo Dome the Samurai crushed the MLB All Stars 12-6 to take a fast 2-0 advantage. For the rest of series the MLB All Stars only ended up winning one game (Game 3) 7-3. The Samurai took a commanding 5-1 series win in a much successful trip to Japan. The MVP of the series is yet to be named, but the their has only ever been one Japan MVP who was Yuki Yanagita in 2014.