Adding Ichiro’s hits from Japan should not be a discussion in his “official” Major League statistics.
Ichiro Suzuki is one hit away from Pete Rose’s all-time hits record. Well, if you count his 1278 total career hits in Japan. And at least one person involved in this discussion does not think that that should be included, and that’s Pete Rose himself.
"It sounds like in Japan, they're trying to make me the Hit Queen," Rose told USA Today Sports. "I'm not trying to take anything away from Ichiro, he's had a Hall of Fame career, but the next thing you know, they'll be counting his high school hits.