When Yu Darvish, Japan's latest high-priced baseball export, makes his debut in the regular US major league season, it is not just the reputation of his blazing right hand that will be at stake.

Darvish has taken it upon himself to rescue the pride and bragging rights of reigning world champions Japan, after a run of failures by his countrymen in MLB.

"The ratings of Japanese players are declining considerably," the 25-year-old Texas Rangers pitcher told Japan's TV Asahi network as he wound up spring training in Arizona last week.

"Some of them were unlucky. Some struggled to win as pitchers or shape up as batters. I want to turn that around," added the 196 cm (6 foot, 5 inch) starter, who can hurl at 156 km (98 miles) per hour.

Darvish, who starts against the Seattle Mariners at home on Monday, sparked a media storm when the Rangers acquired him for a whopping $111.7 million in January, including nearly $52 million to negotiate his transfer.

That was a record under the bidding system for an MLB-bound Japanese player.

"If Darvish fails, Japanese professional baseball will be dismissed," the Japanese weekly Baseball warned in its latest edition this week.

The two-time Japan League Most Valuable Player became the highest-paid player in Japanese baseball after joining the Nippon Ham Fighters in 2005.

Darvish earned an estimated 500 million yen ($6.4 million) last season when he went 18-6 with a 1.44 earned-run average. He had 276 strikeouts in 232 innings. His ERA has remained under 2.00 for the past five seasons.

"There is a lot riding on his success," Robert Whiting, an American author who has penned books on Japanese baseball, told AFP.

"He may be the best pitcher ever to leave Japan for MLB."

However, the US baseball rookie, who was born to an Iranian father and a Japanese mother in Osaka, is expected to struggle with the league's slippery ball and harder pitcher's mound.

"It is not easy to make the adjustment to 30 different teams, ballparks, umpires and a rougher style of play," Whiting said.

And there is a long list of Japanese players trumpeted as the next sensation who were anything but a raging success.

In March, the Minnesota Twins loaned infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka to a minor league affiliate, while pitcher Kei Igawa returned home after spending most of a five-year, $46 million deal with the New York Yankees in the minor leagues.

Some of Japan's best baseball exports such as Seattle Mariners hitting machine Ichiro Suzuki, 38, and former New York Yankees power hitter Hideki Matsui, 37, are showing their age.

In 2006, Japanese right-handed sensation Daisuke Matsuzaka signed a six-year, $52 million dollar deal with the Boston Red Sox who paid another $51 million to his former club Seibu Lions for negotiating transfer rights.

Agence France-Presse In Tokyo

(China Daily 04/07/2012 page16)