TOKYO -- Japanese baseball fans were hardly surprised when Ichiro Suzuki left to play in the U.S. major leagues. But to be the leading vote-getter for the All-Star game is another matter entirely.

	Ichiro's unique style of hitting has helped Seattle to baseball's best record.

"I never imagined he'd be a star over there," said Yasuko Sugawara, 25, as she took a cigarette break from her job at a coffee shop in Tokyo.

Ichiro has silenced his doubters in a baseball-addicted country that had seen Japanese pitchers, but not batters, do well in the United States.

On Monday, baseball announced that he had drawn the most votes of any major-league player for this year's All-Star game -- a feat no rookie from any country has ever accomplished. He is also the first Japanese position player to be picked.

Japanese television broadcasters trumpeted Ichiro's stardom in their morning newscasts, repeating it every hour throughout the day, and major newspapers gave it top billing in their Tuesday evening editions.

"Ichiro Dignified At The Top," blared a front-page headline in the national Asahi newspaper. "Ichiro, The Pride of Asia," said one headline in Japan's largest newspaper, the Yomiuri.

"This is great for Japan," said Nobuo Hakoyama, 52, who was on his way to work in downtown Tokyo. "Hopefully, with more players like him going abroad, it will help to narrow the gap between American and Japanese baseball."

Even Sadaharu Oh, considered one of Japan's best players ever, weighed in with praise.

"This is not just about popularity. He also produces results. He's the real thing," said Oh, who while playing with the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants in the 1970s was the world's most prolific home run hitter.

Ichiro's 3,373,035 votes far surpassed any other major-leaguer, and he swept more than half of the total 2,231,137 online votes. Mariners teammate Edgar Martinez was the second-highest vote-getter, with 2,584,643.

Japanese played no small part in his popularity. Five million of the 72 million All-Star ballots were shipped to Japan so people here could have a say in the voting for the first time ever. And many Japanese who couldn't get their hands on ballots voted over the Internet.

The Asahi newspaper -- which last month whipped up support for Ichiro, urging Japanese to "vote early" and "vote often" -- estimated that 680,000 Japanese cast ballots for him. It also estimated that Japanese made up a significant proportion of the 1,217,680 people who voted for him over the Net.

But Ichiro may well have earned his spot on the All-Star team without the help from home.

The 27-year-old right fielder leads the major league with 126 hits and 27 stolen bases, and has the American League's second-best batting average at .349.

But not everyone in Japan was elated by the news.

Ichiro is the latest of Japan's high-paid, high-profile players to leave for the major leagues since pitcher Hideo Nomo joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995. Since then, about half a dozen stars have left, and fans here fear that their teams are being drained of talent.

Aiko Takada, 57, said she thinks that is why TV ratings and attendance for Japanese baseball games have been sinking. She said she occasionally watches Mariners games shown by public broadcaster NHK in the mornings -- and she is not even an avid baseball fan.

"Even I can tell that American baseball is more exciting," she said.