The 32-year-old, who returned to Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) this season, freeing him up to compete at the Olympics, is one of 11 pitchers selected by manager Atsunori Inaba.

Tomoyuki Sugano, who won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the NPB's Central League last season, is another high-profile name in the squad, while last season's Rookie of the Year winners Masato Morishita and Kaima Taira will also join the pitching staff.

Taira, 21, and Morishita are both uncapped.

Ryoya Kurihara, the MVP of last season's NPB finals, is one of 13 sluggers called up by Inaba, and listed as an outfielder, but could catch in a pinch, as the roster only features two catchers.

NPB's home run leader, Munetaka Murakami, headlines the six infielders selected, while the outfielders also include the 2019 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 MVP Seiya Suzuki.

Tanaka is the only player selected who appeared at Beijing 2008, when baseball was last on the Olympic programme.

Japan came fourth in China, with Inaba also a member of the team.

South Korea won the gold medal, and will join hosts Japan, Mexico, the United States, Israel and one other team in the tournament at Tokyo 2020.

The Netherlands, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic are set to battle it out for the last place later this month, at a qualifier in Mexico.

The Olympic baseball tournament itself will begin on July 28.

Japan's full allocation of pitchers is Sugano, Koyo Aoyagi, Suguru Iwazaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Yasuaki Yamasaki, Ryoji Kurihara, Yudai Ono, Kota Nakagawa, Morishita, Taira and Tanaka.

Takuya Kai and Tsubasa Aizawa are the catchers, with Tetsuto Yamada, Sosuke Genda, Hideto Asamura, Ryosuke Kikuchi, Hayato Sakamoto and Murakami the selected infielders.

Kurihara, Suziki, Kensuke Kondo, Yuki Yanagita and Masataka Yoshida complete the squad.