Shohei Ohtani remains favorite athlete among young Japanese for 4th straight year. The survey, conducted in June and July, targeted 3,000 young people from ages 12-21 and received 1,438 responses with Ohtani topping at 1st place at 19.9%, while volleyball player Yuki Ishikawa at 2nd with 4.5%.

21 comments

  1. Yeah, Shohei Ohtani topping the popularity poll among young Japanese people is like saying water is wet so no surprise there. I’m just surprised as to why the other Japanese MLB players like Seiya Suzuki and Yu Darvish aren’t even in the list considering that NHK also shows Cubs and Padres games live in Japan. Yoshinobu Yamamoto also isn’t in the list, but if the survey was conducted in October then no doubt Yamamoto will surely make it to the top 5.

  4. Yuki my beloved 🥹 It was great to see him back for the Men’s World Championship even if Japan kinda sucked lmao

  8. When I was in Seoul you could see Ohtani everywhere too..and Korea and Japan don’t have the friendliest of relations.

  10. Only 2 players in MLB ever had to sit in a room full of reporters and cameras just to say, “I never betted on baseball.”

  12. As a boxing fan kind of shocked at the lack of Inoue, I thought he was a bigger deal in Japan

  20. I’m honestly surprised it’s only 19.9%. The level of marketing around him in Japan is insane — walking through Tokyo and seeing his face every 3 feet legitimately feels like a fever dream. 

  21. Kinda surprised Naomi Osaka is not 2 but I don’t know jack about the Japanese sports scene

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