Nice catch. Fangraphs made a similar observation about Kuroda’s Dodgers performance as well.

Seabol is probably gone from Hiroshima.

The biggest difference I see looking over the two players’ stats is in complete games. They’ve both thrown a similar number of shutouts (which in and of itself is a big plus for Kuroda), but Kuroda was called on much more often to throw complete games than Kawakami was, as Chunichi has had the bullpen to carry the game (Hiroshima’s closer Nagakawa has always made me nervous while Chunichi’s Iwase is generally lights out). However, over the same time period as your comparisons, Kawakami threw 6.43 innings per game while Kuroda threw just 6.31 innings per game. With 42 more complete games from 1998-2007, Kuroda must have been knocked out of a lot more games early on than Kawakami. That suggests to me that Kawakami has been more steady throughout the seasons.

The intangible that stats don’t talk about regarding Kawakami is that he’s a smart pitcher. He may not have the velocity of others, but he has the control necessary to put the ball where he knows he’ll get results. Knowing batter weaknesses on the 5 other Central League teams is a big plus for Kawakami. He did do well in inter-league play this year, so he may fare well against unknown opposition. (Notice that Kawakami’s had winning seasons since Tanishige joined the Dragons in 2002? The catcher may also play a big role in setting up the pitches - and he just hits the target.)