In Japan, Shohei Ohtani is a national hero and marketer’s dream

TOKYO – It’s hard to be ubiquitous in Tokyo, one of the largest cities in the world, but Shohei Ohtani has found a way. The Los Angeles Dodgers star seems to be everywhere – on billboards, on products, in television ads and news and entertainment shows and, of course, on the field when his games are broadcast live in Japan.

He might play baseball 8,855km away, but one of the first things people see when they deplane at Haneda Airport, the city’s international gateway, is a photo of the superstar in an ad for green tea.

Leaving the airport, one sees Ohtani’s boyish image on vending machines, in convenience stores and wrapped around trains coursing through the city. Last week, when Ohtani and his team landed in Tokyo to prepare for

two season-opening games

this week against the Chicago Cubs, the Dodgers announced yet another sponsorship – with Hakkaisan Brewery, a sake distiller based in Japan.

Major League Baseball (MLB) has had no shortage of stars over the years, but it has never seen a sensation like Ohtani, who is Japan’s answer to Babe Ruth, a rare player who can both pitch and hit at the highest level.

His return to Japan, where tickets to his games are going for as much as US$10,000 (S$13,300), has the feel of a coronation for a home-grown star who last season signed a record US$700 million contract and helped the Dodgers win the World Series.

In sports, money often follows success, and Ohtani’s success has created a windfall for himself, the Dodgers and the league. He has about 20 active sponsorship deals at any time, and the value of his deals spiked when he joined the Dodgers last season after six years with the Los Angeles Angels.

Rob Manfred, the commissioner of MLB, who has overseen its international expansion, has encountered his share of stars in his nearly 30 years with the league. But Ohtani is a cut above.

“I’ve never seen anything at the level of excitement for Ohtani,” he said in an interview.

Ohtani, 30, is a marketer’s dream – a sports icon, pop star and national hero rolled into one.

As the Dodgers made their way to Japan for the Cubs games, news programmes tracked the team’s charter flight across the Pacific Ocean, and fans speculated about whether Ohtani had brought his spaniel, Decoy. Talk shows dissected his diet, fashion choices and home decor, as well as his wife’s hobbies.

“Right now, Ohtani is the thing that fills me with the most spirit in life,” said Kiyotada Sato, 79, an Ohtani obsessive who visited an MLB fan festival last week in Tokyo.

Sato has a closet full of Dodgers gear, one reason MLB apparel and jersey sales in Japan jumped 183 per cent in 2024 and sponsorships grew 114 per cent, including new deals with Mastercard Japan and video game company Konami.

The Dodgers have seen the number and value of their deals rapidly increase, and they are poised to surpass the Dallas Cowboys as the top-earning team, according to SponsorUnited, which tracks sports sponsorships.

The Dodgers, already the top-drawing team in the MLB, saw attendance grow 2.7 per cent in 2024. According to the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, 80 to 90 per cent of Japanese visitors to the city in 2024 were there to attend a Dodgers game.

“I lived through this with Magic Johnson,” said Lon Rosen, the team’s chief marketing officer who previously worked for the Los Angeles Lakers. “You don’t ever take an athlete like this for granted.”

Ohtani has many years ahead of him. But topping his extraordinary success, including hitting 50 home runs and stealing 50 bases last season, will be difficult. So, too, will be finding new fans.

“Ohtani has become such a prominent figure in Japan that there is hardly anyone who doesn’t know him,” said Seiji Terasawa, the deputy director of the broadcasting rights group at television station NHK. “To further elevate his presence, he might need to achieve even more incredible feats, such as winning the Cy Young Award.”

For now, Peak Ohtani continues. Last week in Los Angeles, hundreds of fans waited in line a day in advance to buy limited-edition Dodgers merchandise, including Ohtani jerseys, designed by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. The collection, made available on the Fanatics app, sold out in an hour.

Last week, Japanese flooded the fan fest at the Tokyo Skytree Town, which included a life-size cutout of Ohtani and American stadium food. Mari Muki and Donn Ozaki, who live in southern California, bought tickets to see one of Ohtani’s games, which Muki compared to Taylor Swift concerts.

“Ohtani is popular in the US, and we knew he would be popular in Japan, too,” Ozaki said, “but you really have to see it to believe it here.” NYTIMES