Samurai Japan manager Hiroki Kokubo hopes that right-hander Chihiro Kaneko will continue in Friday’s Game 2 of the Japan-Major League All-Star Series what teammate Kenta Maeda started in a 2-0 win in Game 1.

Kokubo called Kaneko, who won this year’s Sawamura Award as Japan’s outstanding starting pitcher, “the ace of both leagues (in Japan).” The right-hander, who turned 31 last Saturday, is coming off his second straight superb season for the Pacific League’s Orix Buffaloes.

Kaneko, who declined to talk to reporters on Thursday, went 16-5 with a league-leading 1.98 ERA. Kaneko has filed for domestic free agency and has said he will make a decision about whether to ask Orix to post him to the big leagues after he faces major league hitters during this series.

“He has been working toward this Japan-U.S. competition,” Kokubo said after a handful of his players went through a light practice at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows’ indoor practice facility in Tokyo. “He has that great control. That’s what made (Hiroshima ace) Kenta Maeda so effective (on Wednesday).

“I think for him, no game in his career so far will attract so much attention. Pressure comes with that. (What) he just has to do is just hit the catcher’s glove. There are a lot of distractions, but in the end it will be about hitting the glove.”

Kaneko will have the luxury of working with his regular Orix batterymate, Hikaru Ito on Friday at Tokyo Dome. A day after watching Game 1 from the bench together at Kyocera Dome, the pair played some catch with the tournament ball, essentially the official major league ball.

“We played a little catch today, to see how it (the ball) felt,” Ito said. “I noticed he got a lot more movement on his two-seam fastballs. His breaking pitches don’t seem to be dropping quite as much, but we’ll just have to see how it goes once we get into the game. When it’s all said and done, our priority is winning.”

Toeing the rubber for the big leaguers on Friday will be a former Sawamura Award winner, Hisashi Iwakuma of the Seattle Mariners. Iwakuma went 15-9 this season with a 3.52 ERA. Before he moved to the States, however, Iwakuma was the ace of the PL’s Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, where Japan captain Motohiro Shima was his primary catcher.

“I really want to get a hit off him,” said Shima, who went 1-for-3 in the series opener. “But since I’m a catcher, defense is my priority. You’re not going to score a lot off him so we better score first.

“The ball really jumps out at Tokyo Dome, so we’ll need to work down low for the most part and pick our spots to be bold.”

Kokubo said his main concern after winning the opener was that his guys might get too relaxed.

“I think we shed some nerves,” Kokubo said. “We’ll be relaxed, but in being relaxed, we can’t slip up, and I intend to remind everyone of that in tomorrow’s meeting.”