I am not shocked that Japanese players have a decent presence in MLB, since they embrace baseball at a high level in their culture and are a wealthy country. A money driven player probably doesn't even have to move to the USA to play for Payment. US players go there to play for $. A guy like Ichiro must get sick of playing for Seattle, he will be fine as Yankee.
I'm shocked that there are so many Dominican Republicans that make it to MLB since they are not a large country, are dirt poor and have so many disadvantages ( poor equipment, fields, etc.)