The Los Angeles Lakers are Hollywood’s most famous team, but in today’s Los Angeles, there is someone with even greater global reach than LeBron James: Shohei Ohtani. The Japanese star of the Dodgers has become a worldwide figure, followed every night by millions of fans in the United States and by millions more in Japan who stay up late to watch him pitch and hit.
This season, Ohtani hit 55 home runs and is on track to win his fourth MVP award, which would place him second on the all-time list behind only Barry Bonds.
Ohtani has even surpassed Ichiro Suzuki in popularity as Japan’s most iconic baseball figure, and his cultural impact extends far beyond the sport. His fame has made him the most recognizable Japanese person in the world.
Hachimura’s Reaction to Meeting Him
Rui Hachimura, selected ninth overall in the 2019 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards and now playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, leads all Japanese-born NBA players in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Yet even for him, Ohtani represents something on another level. Speaking with ESPN LA, Hachimura said he was surprised by Ohtani’s height and size when they met for the first time.
As Japan’s basketball representative, Hachimura admires Ohtani deeply. He said that Ohtani’s influence goes beyond sports and that he loves watching him play, especially because he does so in Los Angeles, calling it something very special.
Ohtani Beyond Sports
The magnitude of Ohtani’s fame is evident in unusual details, such as the fact that even his dog, Decoy, has its own Wikipedia page. Despite being a private person who even kept his wife’s identity secret for some time, his image transcends boundaries.
A quarterfinal game in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, with Ohtani pitching and hitting, drew 36 million viewers in Japan alone, surpassing the audience of the most-watched NBA Finals in history, which attracted 29 million viewers in 1998.
While Hachimura and the Lakers represent Japanese basketball, Ohtani is likely the most famous person from Japan today, regardless of profession. For Hachimura, meeting him was a special and memorable moment.
