Japanese baseball legend Ichiro Suzuki and his Seattle Mariners will open Major League Baseball's 2012 season Wednesday in Tokyo with a game against the Oakland Athletics.

The game is the fourth time the MLB has opened its season in Japan. But it is the first time Ichiro will return with the Mariners to play in his home country since the superstar left Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league in 2001.

Wednesday's game is likely to receive good ratings in Tokyo. The season opener and a second game Thursday at the Tokyo Dome are sold out, with tickets going for as much as $250 per seat.

The two U.S. teams will spend a total of a week in Japan. They have already played several exhibition games in front of sell-out crowds against professional Japanese teams. They also held a baseball clinic earlier in the week in a tsunami-battered district in northern Japan.

Ichiro is by far the most successful Japan-born player to make the transition to the U.S. league. In 11 years, he has won a Most Valuable Player award, two batting titles, 10 Gold Glove awards, and appeared in 10 All-Star games. But the 38-year-old outfielder is coming off his worst season so far, and the only one in which he has failed to reach 200 base hits.

Even so, Japanese baseball fans still have another reason to keep a close eye on the MLB this year. Another one of their baseball stars – Yu Darvish – signed a record-breaking $60-million contract with the Texas Rangers in January. The son of an Iranian father and a Japanese mother, the right-handed pitcher was the most highly sought-after international player in several years.

Through last season, 38 Japan-born players have appeared in the major leagues.