2006 Nippon Professional Baseball season

Format

Season format
* Regular season
* Playoff 1st stage: Regular season 2nd place vs. regular season 3rd place – Best of 3
* Playoff 2nd stage: Regular season 1st place vs. playoff 1st stage winners – Best of 5
Playoff 2nd stage winners are the champions

'''Seibu Lions vs. Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks '''

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters vs. Fukuoka Softbank Hawks ''The Fighters have a one-game advantage.''

It featured the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, champions of the Pacific League, and the Chunichi Dragons, champions of the Central League. The series was played as a best-of-seven format and took place from October 21 to October 26, 2006.
The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters emerged victorious, defeating the Chunichi Dragons 4 games to 1 to secure their first Japan Series title since 1962. The series began at the Nagoya Dome, home of the Dragons, where the Fighters claimed a narrow victory in Game 1. The remaining games were held at the Sapporo Dome, where the Fighters capitalized on strong pitching and timely hitting to dominate the series.
Atsunori Inaba of the Fighters was named the Japan Series Most Valuable Player for his exceptional performance throughout the series, which included critical offensive contributions and solid defensive play. The Fighters were managed by Trey Hillman, who became the first foreign manager to win the Japan Series since Bobby Valentine in 2005.
Following their Japan Series victory, the Fighters advanced to the Asian Series, representing NPB against other league champions from Asia to compete for the title of the top baseball team in the region.

The Eiji Sawamura Award, the award given to the top pitcher in Japan, was given to pitcher Kazumi Saito of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He had a win–loss record of 18-5, 205 strikeouts, and an ERA of 1.75 in 201.0 innings, winning the Pacific League's pitching triple crown.

Central League

Pacific League

Position	Player	Team
P	Kazumi Saitoh	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
C	Tomoya Satozaki	Chiba Lotte Marines
1B	Michihiro Ogasawara	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
2B	Kensuke Tanaka	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
3B	Jose Fernández	Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
SS	Munenori Kawasaki	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
OF	Atsunori Inaba	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
OF	Nobuhiko Matsunaka	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
OF	Kazuhiro Wada	Seibu Lions
DH	Fernando Seguignol	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

Central League

Pacific League

Position	Player	Team
P	Daisuke Matsuzaka	Seibu Lions
C	Tomoya Satozaki	Chiba Lotte Marines
1B	Michihiro Ogasawara	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
2B	Kensuke Tanaka	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
3B	Toshiaki Imae	Chiba Lotte Marines
SS	Munenori Kawasaki	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
OF	Atsunori Inaba	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
OF	Hichori Morimoto	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
OF	SHINJO	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters