Hayato Sakamoto was awarded with the Tokyo Dome MVP (plus a money prize of 3M yen) on Thursday.  The Tokyo Dome Honorable Mention (plus a 1M yen money prize) was given to Tetsuya Matsumoto.

Sakamoto is the younger player to win the award.

Kaoru Okazaki, Yomiuri Giants Ni-gun manager, was presented with the Ni-gun Championship Pennant during the Ni-gun Awards Ceremony (held at a separate location from the Ichi-gun Awards Ceremony).

Eastern League

Western League

Information courtesy the official NPB site and Sponichi.

Central League

* also twice at third in the PL and three times at first in the PL
+ also once at first

Voting

Pitchers

Catchers

First Basemen

Second Basemen

Third Basemen

Shortstops

Outfielders

Pacific League

* also once in the CL
+ also once as an OF in the CL

Voting

Pitchers

Catchers

First Basemen

Second Basemen

Third Basemen

Shortstops

Outfielders

Designated Hitters

Central League

Most Valuable Player

Rookie of the Year

Other Awards

Pacific League

Most Valuable Player

Rookie of the Year

Other Awards

Information from the official NPB site.

I had some time and swung by Akasaka Sakasu for the Red Carpet event.  It was fairly crowded, but I managed to secure a fairly decent place (it would have been far better if the person standing to the left of me didn't shove his way in and spend most of the time hanging off the railing trying to shake hands with every player that walked by).

In any case, most of the pictures aren't great because of the lighting and the movement, but at least you can make the faces out.  And there are a number that I thought came out pretty well, despite the blur.

You can view the rest of the Red Carpet images here.

Michihiro Ogasawara was awarded with the 11th Annual Golden Spirit award on Monday.  Ogasawara has been donating money to a social welfare organization in Ichikawa Prefecture since his days with the Nippon Ham Fighters.  He has also been volunteering his free time by visiting children at various hospitals.

The Golden Spirit Award is essentially the Japanese version of the Roberto Clemente Award.

Here's a list of the previous 10 winners:

The 2009 Mitsui Golden Glove Award winners were announced on Tuesday.

Central League

Pacific League

The Sawamura Award is handed out at the end of each season to the best overall pitcher in either league.  They must also fulfill as many of the following statistical categories as possible (implemented in 1982):

Games - 25 or more
Complete Games - 10 or more
Win - 15 or more
Winning Percentage - .600 or better
Innings Pitched - 200 or more
Strike outs - 150 or more
ERA - 2.50 or less

This season the award goes to:

Hideaki Wakui (Seibu Lions)

(italics - tied in both leagues; bold - led either league)

Said Wakui, "It's difficult to get selected for this award so when I heard the news, I was sincerely happy.  I was able to rack up a fair number of strike outs and I was the only pitcher with double-digit complete games so I thought I had a chance."

===

A Pacific League pitcher has won the award the last 5 years straight.

The last Central League pitcher to win it?

Kenshin Kawakami in 2004 when he was pitching for the Chunichi Dragons.

=== UPDATE 11/3/2009 @ 12:14pm JST

Other names that were up for consideration:

Yu Darvish

Masahiro Tanaka

Toshiya Sugiuchi

Kazuki Yoshimi

Dicky Gonzalez

The Golden Spirits Award goes to Michihiro Ogasawara this year.

Ogasawara has been donating money to the  Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefectural Social Welfare Organization ever since 2000.  The money he donates goes toward helping children with cancer and their families.

The award will be presented on November 16th.

Yoshiyuki Kamei and Tadahito Iguchi were selected for the first Dramatic Sayonara Award.

The award is given to one player in each league that hit a "memorable" home run during the past season.  Winners of the home run also received a cash prize of 2M yen.

Kamei hit a walk-off 3-run homer to help the Yomiuri Giants beat the Chunichi Dragons on April 25th at the Tokyo Dome in the bottom of the 9th.  Kamei also finished the season with a league-high 3 walk-off home runs.

Tadahito Iguchi also hit a walk-off home run, his against the Rakuten Eagles on April 16th at Chiba Marine Stadium in the bottom of the 10th.  Iguchi finished the season with 2 walk-off home runs.