Yutaka Fukufuji is a Japanese ice hockey player currently with the Nikko Ice Bucks of the Asia League Ice Hockey. Fukufuji was the first Japanese player to appear in a National Hockey League game. The first Japanese draft pick, Hiroyuki Miura, was selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1992 NHL Draft, but never played in an NHL game. A fictional Japanese player, Taro Tsujimoto, was a name "plucked out of the Buffalo telephone book" as a joke in 1974 by Buffalo Sabres GM Punch Imlach. He is the first Japanese citizen to be drafted as a goaltender in the NHL and second Japanese national to be drafted. 

September 17th, 1982 in Kushiro (Age 42)