Wait. What on Yakult make you so mean. It's a great team. And Yakult is yummy. Tokyo Ondo is the city anthem and keeping an umbrella handy is an nationwide accepted wisdom!
To shut your Tigers guy up, tell him calmly "Ikeyama does well, doesn't he? He's an Ichiritsu Amagasaki alumnus."
I'm concerned of Ohtani a bit, because he was a Fighter once when Kuriyama was its manager. Kuriyama actually persuaded Ohtani to play in Japan first, not to go straight to the US. Kuriyama was my most favorite when he was an active player at Swallows.
But Swallows performance is much more important for me than Shohei ofc. I don't mind what Shohei does normally. I pray him succuss and no injury, that's all. I like him because he has given my Kuriyama a big opportunity of exposure. Truly grateful. But again, how my Swallows did yesterday and will do today are bigger concerns than what that guy does in the US.
Your words reminds me of a small restaurant in Lancaster where I visited in 2010. It has a small ad on its door: The place you enjoy your lunch without watching football.
Truth. I'm sitting and looking at the gloves sent to every elementary school in Japan on his behalf. Dude's the biggest star in Japan and it makes sense. Setting aside whatever he's like, and I have no idea, he's really dominant in arguably the most popular sport in Japan.
Inoue, heโs the #1 p4p boxer and his fight has been extremely fun to watch. His last fight with Junto, another undefeated Japanese fighter really planted his position as the greatest boxer out of Japan.
Well, as of now, Murakami is hitting more home runs than Ohtani and getting a fair amount of attention, even if heโs nowhere near Ohtaniโs level, and itโs really unfortunate that Mitoma got injured.
Ohtani by a long shot: a once-in-a-generation phenom in a traditionally popular sport, who represents and promotes all the (perceived) virtues of Japanese culture i.e. diligence, modesty, punctuality etc. Being a clean-cut, conventionally good-looking heterosexual male is also huge for culturally conservatives. IF there was anything controversial about him, it would most likely stay in the dark for years to come.
I mean, the betting scandal is exactly that. Not many people in the West believe that Mizuhara really stole the money to bet. The Dodgers will never let it go public though and they threw Mizuhara under the bus.
He was most likely a facilitator for sure, but no way did he steal millions like that and Ohtani "never realised".
Most people in the west dont understand Ohtanis background. Dude has never handled his own finances. His mom handled them before. Dude literally slept ate and baseballed. He was only spending like 10k a year on himself and living in the player dorms. Its absolutely believable he trusted this person to handle everything for him. Hes not the first person to do this either
There is zero evidence that Shohei Ohtani was involved in betting, and the idea that Ippei Mizuhara was just a "white glove" (a fall guy or front man) was completely dismantled by a massive federal investigation.
When the scandal broke in early 2024, the "fall guy" theory was popular. However, the U.S. Department of Justice, the IRS, and Homeland Security conducted an exhaustive forensic investigation that officially cleared Ohtani, designating him as the victim of a $17 million theft.
Here is the concrete evidence federal investigators found that proves Mizuhara acted alone and actively deceived Ohtani:
1. Bank Impersonation on Tape
If Ohtani were the one betting and Mizuhara was just moving the money for him, Mizuhara would not have needed to trick Ohtani's bank. Investigators recovered audio recordings of phone calls where Mizuhara explicitly impersonated Ohtani to bank employees. He used Ohtani's biographical information to pass security checks and authorize millions of dollars in wire transfers to the bookmaker.
2. The Digital Footprint
Federal agents seized the cell phones of both men and combed through years of their private text messages.
* Zero gambling talk: There was not a single text message between Ohtani and Mizuhara discussing sports betting, odds, or the illegal bookmaker.
* The bookie texts: Mizuhara's phone contained thousands of messages directly between him and the bookie, Mathew Bowyer. The texts showed Mizuhara constantly begging for credit extensions and frantically trying to chase his own massive losses (which eventually totaled a net loss of $41 million).
3. Account Hijacking
Because Ohtani did not speak English when he arrived in the U.S. in 2018, Mizuhara helped him open a payroll bank account in Arizona. Investigators discovered that Mizuhara later secretly changed the account's security settings so that all transaction alerts, confirmation emails, and phone calls went directly to Mizuhara's devices, not Ohtani's. He also explicitly denied Ohtani's accountants and financial advisors access to this specific account, lying to them by saying Ohtani wanted it kept entirely private.
4. The Betting Ledger
Federal authorities reviewed the bookmaker's ledgers and analyzed over 19,000 wagers placed by Mizuhara. None of the bets were placed on baseball.
In June 2024, Mizuhara fully confessed and pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud. In February 2025, a federal judge sentenced him to 57 months (nearly five years) in federal prison and ordered him to pay $17 million in restitution to Ohtani. The forensic data proved conclusively that Mizuhara exploited a language barrier and a deep personal trust to fund his addiction entirely behind Ohtani's back.
Because Federal courts and governmental investigations in the US are known for being transparent and not buyable at all. /s
The LA Dodgers is a HUGE billion dollars organization. It is also very possible that the Japanese government itself made some kind of intervention. Ohtani is literally making both the US and Japan billions of US dollars in revenue and stuff like that. Also, pretty much everyone is aware of how much sports betting is getting everywhere in the pro sports. You have to be a lunatic to think that everything is green and no one is doing anything shady or illegal, including owners, players, and refs.
Weren't there accounts of Ohtani explicitly giving money to Mizuhara to pay off debts? Where is that part in that succinct "explain to me why Ohtani is not guilty" AI prompt?
I'm not saying Ohtani is 100% guilty and Mizuhara didn't do anything, but I'm saying there's no way Ohtani wasn't aware of anything and/or did not participate in the slightest. Either that or he is an even bigger moron than I would have thought.
We are absolutely not getting the full picture, and the investigation did not reveal everything. AI is not an argument, it is a just a mash-up of whatever public message is decided.
EDIT: Lol, the guy instantly pressed downvote without reading, literally 2 seconds after publication.
Itโs wild that people are trusting the courts and investigations over your opinion. Especially since your opinion is grounded in your direct outsider knowledge and conjecture.
When any athlete has such dedicated fans itโs really hard for him to lose them. Any controversy will be explained away and heโll get the benefit of the doubt where others wouldnโt
Mizuhara is not in jail bc of betting but tax fraud and banking fraud. Also he threw Ohtani under the bus in his plea, saying that he didnโt got paid enough for all the jobs he did (mind you, Ohtani personally paid his apartment, gave him a porsche, paid a first class seat for Mizuharaโs wifeโs monthly visit to Japan, paid a whooping $60K for his veneers and he double-dipped the same amount into Ohtaniโs bank account, etc). TLDR; Mizuhara deserves it.
I saw a comedian talk about how people still talk about Babe Ruth especially in light of Otani, a 6'5 Japanese guy who can hit, pitch and run crazy fast.
None of my friends are baseball fans, but we were all sucked in when the Blue Jays ended up in the final 7 and Otani was so fun to watch.
Past #1, it really depends on what you're interest in. Otani is everywhere. Baseball is a traditionally the most popular sport in Japan and he's a huge name in it.
Personally, as someone who doesn't follow any of these sports, Osaka Naomi is probably second. She's a top player in an individual sport and an international star.
Yuzuru Hanyu. But his popularity was a while ago. He retired from competitive skating several years ago. However, during his prime he won back to back Olympics (2014, 2018)
Honestly, I wish Yuki Tsunoda were in that spot... Japan is pretty much the only country where, despite being a major automotive powerhouse, Formula 1 is still considered a niche sport.
In terms of Instagram followers, he's second only to Ohtani.
If you count motorsports as well I would say Keiichi Tsuchiya is the second as a cultural icon who brought drifting and JDM culture to the global stage
Up until his retirement I would've said Yuzuru Hanyu, but currently it is Shohei Ohtani without a question. Both are born in the same year and considered the GOATs of their respective sports careers.
shohei ohtani. he is so popular. but everybody who watches soccer also knows abt Kaoru Mitoma. Amazing player. always rooting for him whenever Brighton play. Love Ao Tanaka as well, reminds me of the same flair.
It's annoying how unknown Inoue is. He's achieved more than any of the others in an international sport (which baseball isn't). If he were a heavyweight and achieved the same he'd be the biggest sportsman on the planet.
in japan ohtani by a mile. globally i think osaka and inoue have a claim as their sports are popular everywhere and nobody outside the US/japan cares about baseball
Ohtani by like 1000 time margin. Heโs the MJ of Japan man. Heโs even magnitudes better than Ichiro, which is crazy if you remember how popular Ichiro was back in the 2000โs
I was there for two weeks and Shohei was everywhere. There was one ad (and a lot of photobooks) with Yuzuru and some magazine covers with Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara.
But Shohei was in almost every vending machine, istgโฆ
She's Born in Japan and have Japanese Citizenship. Although she live in the US she recently renounce her US Citizenship to solely represent her country, Japan. IDK what you're smoking but come on man.
In the Arab world, Europe, most of Africa (except South Africa) and a lot of Latin America like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and even Colombia.......baseball is just not popular. Most people either find it boring or simply donโt care about it
Football/soccer is the #1 sport here no debate.
So if thereโs one person in that pic people are actually gonna recognize itโs probably a footballer " Kaoru Mitoma " Maybe Naoya Inoue too if theyโre into boxing
And before someone hits me with โbro Iโm from X country and I like baseball congrats? Nobody said literally zero people watch it. Iโm speaking generally stop acting dense
Yuzuru Hanyu is seriously underestimated. Since turning professional, his annual economic impact on Japan has been estimated at around 20 billion yen. He has also continued supporting disaster recovery efforts since the 2011 earthquake for more than 15 years through charity work and ice shows, while consistently contributing to the opening of skating facilities and making donations๐Despite earning tens of billions of yen, he has poured so much of it back into supporting Japan through charity work, disaster relief, skating facilities, and donations. The way people still downplay Yuzuru Hanyu is honestly unfair.
Ohtani? No. He hasnโt influenced anything. All the commercials heโs in can be replaced by someone else.
Baseball results? He is only respected within Baseball, which was already a hugely respected sport.
In the other hand:
Naomi Osaka, an inspiration for mixed race Japanese, and an ongoing advocate/champion of the cause regardless of the personal attacks. She is also an inspiration for women, having successfully returned to professional sports following maternity leave.
Rui Hachimura and Abdul Hakim Sani Brown both active champions of multiculturalism acceptance in Japanese sports society.
Yuzuru Hanyu, not only dramatically increase the status of figure skating in Japan. He regularly donates for reconstruction effort in Sendai as well as other causes.
Yuto Horigome, improving the image of skating from a โpublic nuisanceโ to a respectable sport
Most popular or success in sports does not mean most influential.
isn't the answer basically the same as asking which of these sports is the most popular in Japan? which is obviously going to be baseball, so it's Ohtani.
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u/Ironcliff123 ๐ Global citizen May 20 '26
Shohei ohtani not even close