Across the Yankees universe on Friday night, all eyes were on Toronto, where the team’s prized off-season acquisition from Japan, pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, made his major league debut against the Blue Jays. Battalions of Japanese reporters were on hand to document the milestone, and baseball fans in Japan, coffee mugs in hand, woke up early on Saturday to watch the game live.

The trans-Pacific hubbub was an echo of what happened 11 years ago when Hideki Matsui played his first regular-season game for the Yankees. The buildup in 2003 was front-page news in Japan, where the citizens, it seemed, could not wait to see Matsui play for baseball’s most famous team.

By coincidence, that game was also in Toronto.

Like Matsui, Tanaka left Japan in the prime of his career having just helped his team win a title. (With the previously hapless Rakuten Golden Eagles, Tanaka went 24-0 last season.) Tanaka, too, was offered big money to stay in Japan, and his exit has added to worries that Nippon Professional Baseball is turning into a feeder system for Major League Baseball.

Matsui, a left-handed slugger, was expected to feast on pitching at Yankee Stadium because of its shallow right-field fence. While Tanaka is not yet considered the ace of the Yankees’ staff, his eye-popping $155 million contract suggests that the team views him as a mainstay of the rotation. He had a solid debut Friday, recovering from early struggles and earning the win as the Yankees beat the Blue Jays, 7-3.