TOKYO — When Carlos Beltran collected his 2,000th hit recently, the moment was greeted with polite but understandably low-key applause from around baseball; 269 players had reached the milestone before him. The real fanfare comes with 3,000 hits, a mark reached by only 28 players.

In Japan, though, where the annual schedule historically has contained at least 10 percent fewer games, 2,000 hits is celebrated like 3,000 in the United States. Forty-one Japanese players have achieved the milestone, but when a Venezuelan joined them Thursday, it raised questions of how to honor the occasion.

Alex Ramirez headed to Japan after the 2000 season as a 26-year-old outfielder after playing briefly for Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Unlike most players who have ventured across the Pacific Ocean, Ramirez stayed. Twelve seasons and three teams later, he has produced 2,000 career hits in the two nations.

Ramirez, 37, reached the milestone with two hits on Thursday, raising his career total in Japan to 1,914. Adding his 86 from the United States, he has 2,000 for his professional career. Recently, as more Japanese players have gone to the United States, such combined milestones have been reason to celebrate. In Ramirez’s case, though, reaction was tempered. That is probably because he is so close to achieving the mark based solely on his hits in Japan. Going into the weekend, he needed 86 hits in his Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars’ remaining 75 games to reach 2,000 in Japan.