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MEET THE JAPANESE JETER – METS’ ROOKIE HAS DREAMS OF BECOMING A SUPERSTAR

HE’S been dubbed the Derek Jeter of Japan because of his good looks and his flair for the dramatic. Now, Tsuyoshi Shinjo wants to take New York by storm.

“At first, my goal was to be on the field at a major-league baseball stadium,” says the Mets’ newest outfielder. “Now I am doing that. My next goal is to be a key player. Then, I want to become a superstar.”

During an interview at an Upper East Side restaurant, the 29-year-old Shinjo, who brought his interpreter, is expressive, often gesturing with his hands and bobbing his charcoal eyebrows. He wears fashionable clothes: a jean jacket, a silky white v-neck sweater and chunky black shoes.

During a brief photo session, he dons pink-tinted sunglasses and fluffs up a reddish pompadour. But underneath, the son of a landscaper projects an air of humility.

“Everybody should set high goals,” he says. “It may be impossible to achieve, but you must set the bar high.”

In just five starts with the Mets, Shinjo, a wiry 6-foot-1, 170-pounder, has won over teammates and fans with his curious mix of Japanese humility and American hot-dogging.

He brushes the dirt off home plate after he bats to clean it for the teammate who follows him – a Japanese custom. But, after clocking his first major-league home run Monday at Shea, Shinjo tossed his bat aside like Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa and yelled out proudly in Japanese.

“I think my style suits America,” he says. “In Japan, everyone seems the same, people do the same things. Here, people are individuals. I relate to that.”

Shinjo admires everything about America.

“Even the mosquitoes here are powerful,” he says with a grin, recalling the whopping bites he got during spring training in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

“That, I like.”

EVER since Shinjo saw the movie King Kong when he was a child, he’s been fascinated with super-sized, flamboyant people and places.

“I have never wanted to live an ordinary day,” he explains. “I don’t want ‘boring.’ I want stimulation.”

When he played in Osaka, Japan’s second-largest city, Shinjo aimed to play in Tokyo, the capital city, so “everyone could know about Shinjo.”

Then he got to thinking. What’s even bigger than Tokyo?

“When I started to think about the world, I thought, ‘If I go to the U.S., life will be even more exciting.'”

When he arrived in New York last December after signing a one-year, $700,000 contract with the Mets – he left $11 million on the bargaining table in Japan – he drove through the city with a friend who pointed out King Kong’s Empire State Building.

“Ah,” Shinjo recalls saying. “Yes, I am in New York.”

The outfielder’s days are not filled with parties and club dates.

He says he likes to sleep “as late as possible” and then he gets up to drink a cup of warm water “to settle the stomach” before listening to CDs of 98 Degrees, *NSYNC and Britney Spears.

His wife of four months, Shiho, a former model and actress, is visiting this week, but she will return to Osaka next week.

“There are two main reasons why I left my wife in Japan,” Shinjo explains. “First, I always want to be hungry. Second, half of our time is spent [on the road]. I would be worried about her all alone and that would disturb my concentration on baseball.”

SHINJO points out he has just one year to show what he can do. If he fails, he will be released and sent back home.

“This one season is very, very important,” he says. “My wife totally understands that.”

Some people don’t. On Shinjo’s first night in New York, Mike Piazza called and invited him to dinner. Piazza warned that stardom does not come easy, but he also said he respected – and was stunned by – Shinjo’s decision to leave behind all that was familiar.

“If I stayed in Japan, everything was guaranteed,” Shinjo explains. “The money. The popularity. The regular position on the team. But I didn’t think I could get results out of myself because I was so satisfied. I wanted a new challenge. I wanted to make the next step.”

He says he didn’t tell anyone at first of his desire to play in the major leagues.

“I knew what everyone would say – that I could not succeed,” he says. “But I knew if I didn’t come, I would regret it. So I left everything. I need to see what I can do here.”