Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Series

The Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Game is an annual baseball series of All-Star Games (in most years, two games are played, but three such games can and have been played as well) between players from the Central League and the Pacific League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers. The All-Star Game usually occurs in early to mid-July and marks the symbolic halfway point in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) season (though not the mathematical halfway point; in most seasons, that takes place one week earlier).

History
The first NPB All-Star game was played in 1951.

For many years, mimicking the gaijin waku rule of the NPB, each All-Star team was limited to two foreign players.

Hanshin Tigers player voting controversy
The fan votes of the starters of the 2023 All Star Series revealed 9 of the 10 highest voted starters were Hanshin Tigers players. It was the third time in NPB players from the same team led the voting in all positions. The controversy was garnered as some of the positions, such as catcher, which in question was Ryutaro Umeno, were voted in for the sole purpose of being voted in by fans, as he did not produce numbers good enough to be considered an All Star Game appearance, compared to that of a player like Takumi Ohshiro. Others, like Teruaki Sato at 3rd base, were good, but there had been players who were much more deserving to start, like Toshiro Miyazaki and Kazuma Okamoto.