Japan 5, Chinese Taipei 0- Samurai Japan opened the Tadahito Iguchi era with a strong showing, defeating Chinese Taipei 5-0 in its Asia Professional Baseball Championship opener at Tokyo Dome.

2026 Japan Series MVP Tomoya Masaki⁠ homered twice, while Chunichi Dragons southpaw Yumeto Kanemaru⁠ threw seven shutout innings.

Masaki opened the scoring with a 433-foot leadoff homer to center in the first inning. Rui Muneyama⁠ followed with a double and scored on Misho Nishikawa⁠’s RBI single, giving Japan an early 2-0 advantage.

Masaki went deep again in his next at-bat, driving a solo shot to left in the third.

Kanemaru kept Chinese Taipei quiet throughout his night, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out five on 91 pitches. Shunya Morita⁠ and Seiya Yoshida followed with clean innings each to preserve the shutout.

Masaki added an RBI single in the seventh for his third hit and third RBI of the night. Muneyama, who doubled in each of his first two at-bats, gave the Samurai more insurance with a solo homer in the ninth to push the lead to five.

Japan will now face Korea on Friday at 7 p.m. JST before concluding round-robin play against Australia on Saturday.

Australia 8, Korea 7- Earlier in the day, Australia edged Korea in an 8-7 thriller, rallying late after surrendering a four-run lead.

Blake Cavill⁠ launched a three-run homer in the first inning, and Australia added another run in the third. Korea exploded with six runs in the sixth, but Clayton Campbell⁠’s two-run shot in the eighth tied the game at 6-6.

Chris Burke⁠ delivered a go-ahead RBI double in the ninth, and the Aussies added an insurance run that proved decisive as Korea pulled one back in the bottom half before falling short.

Australia plays Chinese Taipei at 12 p.m. JST tomorrow.