Japan manager Senichi Hoshino took a gamble on Thursday afternoon.
Whether or not it pays off is up to Koji Uehara.
With pitchers such as Tohoku Rakuten's Hisashi Iwakuma (12-3, 2.56 ERA), veteran setup man and World Baseball Classic team member Tomoyuki Kubota and others there for the taking, Hoshino named the currently out-of-form Yomiuri pitcher to the Olympic roster.