is the first Japanese-born player to appear in a National Hockey League game. He is also the first Japanese citizen to be drafted as a goaltender (and the third player overall) in the NHL. The first, Taro Tsujimoto, was a name "plucked out of the Buffalo telephone book" as a joke in 1974 by Buffalo Sabres GM Punch Imlach. The second, Hiroyuki Miura, was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 1992, but never played in an NHL game. Fukufuji was born in Kushiro, HokkaidÅ, Japan. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Yutaka Fukufuji. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutaka_Fukufuji
... search Player Name: Yutaka Fukufuji Goalie Born Sep 17 1982 -- Tokyo, Japan Height 6.01 -- Weight 186 -- Shoots L Selected by Los Angeles Kings round 8 238 overall 2004 NHL Entry ... www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=70188
