This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "2011 Japan Series" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

2011 Japan Series
Team (Wins) Managers Season Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (4) Koji Akiyama 88–46–10, (.657), GA: 17.5 Chunichi Dragons (3) Hiromitsu Ochiai 75–59–10, (.560), GA: 2.5
Dates	November 12–20
MVP	Hiroki Kokubo (Fukuoka)
FSA	Kazuhiro Wada (Chunichi)
Broadcast
Television	In Japan: TV Nishinippon andFuji TV (Game 1) TV Tokyo (Games 2, 5) Tokai TV and Fuji TV (Game 3) TBS (Games 4, 7) KBC andTV Asahi (Game 6)
TV announcers	Nobuo Yoshida (Fuji TV), Tomoki Uekusa (TV Tokyo), Atsushi Moriwaki (Tokai TV), Hiroyuki Takada (CBC), Takao Nakayama (TV Asahi), Masahiro Hayashi (TBS)
← 2010 Japan Series 2012 →

The2011 Japan Series (known as theKonami Nippon Series 2011 for sponsorship reasons) was the 62nd edition ofNippon Professional Baseball'schampionship series. Thebest-of-seven playoff matched theChunichi Dragons andFukuoka SoftBank Hawks, the respective champions of theCentral League's and thePacific League'sClimax Series (postseason). The Series began on Saturday, November 12,2011 and was a rematch of the1999 Japan Series, which the Hawks won, four games to one.

Due to the2011 Tohoku Earthquake delaying the season opener to April 12, the Japan Series was delayed to mid-November. The Hawks won the series in seven games, claiming their fifth Japan Series crown.

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won the series, 4–3.

After not having won a playoff series since 2003 when they won theJapan Series that year, the Hawks finally broke through against theSaitama Seibu Lions. Earning a first-round bye and a one-game advantage in the Pacific League Climax Series Final Stage, the Hawks completed the sweep of the Lions to earn their spot in the Japan Series.

During the regular season, the Hawks were the best team in the league record-wise at 88-46-10. They scored the second-most runs in the league (550) and allowed the fewest (351), while also stealing the most bases and leading the league in team batting average (.267). Leading the team offensively was new acquisitionSeiichi Uchikawa, who led the entire league in batting average at .338. He was helped by two longtime Hawks mainstays at the top of the lineup,Munenori Kawasaki andYuichi Honda, who stole 91 bases between them. Providing the power wasNobuhiro Matsuda, who finally had a breakout season with 25 home runs and 83 runs batted in, both team highs.

In a pitching-heavy year for NPB, the Hawks had a three-headed monster that finished 3-4-5 in ERA.Tsuyoshi Wada (16-5, 1.51),Toshiya Sugiuchi (8-7, 1.91) andD. J. Houlton (19-6, 2.19) anchored the Hawks rotation, and Houlton had the most wins by a foreigner sinceGene Bacque. The bullpen featured another breakout star inMasahiko Morifuku, who led the team in holds with 34 and had a 1.13 ERA to go along with it. Closing duties were split between regular closerTakahiro Mahara and another stellar foreigner,Brian Falkenborg, who each had 19 saves.

Chunichi also won the Central League with the best record at 75-59-10, defeating theTokyo Yakult Swallows 4-2 in the Central League Climax Series. The Dragons had been to the Japan Seriesthe previous season but fell to theChiba Lotte Marines in seven games. This was Chunichi's third Japan Series appearance in the last five years, winning in 2007 against theHokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.

Returning largely the same team as the previous season, the Dragons showcased an excellent pitching staff that covered up for a league-worst offense that only batted .228 as a team. The offensive leaders wereTony Blanco, who hit 16 home runs during the season while batting .248.Masahiro Araki led the team in batting average at .263 and also stolen bases with 18.

The pitching staff was led by a stellar foreigner of their own inMaximo Nelson, who may have had a losing record at 10-14 with a 2.52 ERA, but was the only pitcher on the staff who threw 200 innings. VeteranKazuki Yoshimi offset this with an 18-3 record and a 1.63 ERA, and Taiwanese leftyChen Wei-Yin added eight wins of his own.

The bullpen was the real star, though, as it had four relievers who posted ERA's under 2.00.Takuya Asao led the pack with a nigh-unhittable 0.41 ERA and a 7-2 record while also leading the league in holds with 45 and also getting 10 saves.Masato Kobayashi also was dominant with a 0.87 ERA and 18 holds in 58 innings, andYoshihiro Suzuki added 12 holds of his own while also posting a 1.08 ERA. The anchor in the bullpen was longtime closerHitoki Iwase, who saved 37 games during the season.

• 2011 Korean Series
• 2011 World Series

• Japan Series
• Chunichi Dragons postseason
• Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks postseason
• 2011 Nippon Professional Baseball season
• November 2011 sports events in Japan

• Articles needing additional references from May 2013
• All articles needing additional references
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata