Before Shohei Ohtani became Japan's most popular athlete, that title belonged to figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu.
Like Ohtani, Hanyu is 29 years old.
Like Ohtani, Hanyu was born and raised in the Tohoku region, the northern part of Japan's main island.
Last year, the retired Hanyu announced on social media that he was married. Three months later, he returned to the same platform with another announcement.
It was absolute.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist said his family was harassed and became the unwanted subject of media inquiries and reports. The identity of his wife, which Hanyu kept secret, was revealed by a weekly magazine.
“When I thought about my future, I wanted my husband to be happy and have boundless happiness, so I made the decision to divorce,” Hanyu wrote in Japanese.
Hanyu's story helps make sense of the strange way Ohtani revealed his wedding this week.
Announcing the marriage on Instagram and holding a press conference about it but refusing to share the husband's name may seem strange to Americans. However, by the standards of Japanese culture – especially Japanese celebrity culture – there was nothing abnormal about this.
To begin with, a person's work and personal life are more clearly defined in Japan than in the United States. Romantic partners are rarely invited to work-related social events, for example. Additional benefits are not a standard feature of wedding invitations.
Athletes typically keep their relationships private until they get married, which is why news of their unions often seems like it came out of nowhere. Japanese media described Ohtani's marriage as a “shocking wedding,” although Ohtani said he got engaged last year.
Some Japanese baseball players have been married to famous sports broadcasters, including Ichiro Suzuki, Yusei Kikuchi, and Kenta Maeda. Yu Darvish married the world champion in Greco-Roman wrestling. Their wives already had public profiles before their marriage and they continue to maintain them. But in cases where the player is married to… Epangen — Or civilians – the couple remained unknown. Hideki Matsui was one of the most famous Japanese players of all time, and not much is known about him com. ippanjin Wife to this day.
Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu poses with his gold medal during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
(David J. Phillip / Associated Press)
Ohtani said he married a “normal” Japanese woman, so it is expected that she will try to stay in the shadows.
The marriage was announced in a message that Ohtani posted in Japanese on his Instagram account. In the comments section of the post, another message was posted, this one in English. The contents of the two letters were similar but not identical.
In the Japanese version, Ohtani said he would speak to reporters the next day and asked reporters to refrain from contacting his family or his wife's families. In the end, this is what Ohtani wanted to convey. In exchange for sharing some details about his relationship, he would ask for privacy.
Ohtani indirectly reiterated his request when he addressed reporters at the Dodgers' spring training complex. When asked why he made the announcement, he joked in Japanese: “If I don’t do it [and you found out]You'll make a fuss. The implication was that because he was reporting on the situation, Japanese journalists shouldn't make a fuss.
If Ohtani had been another player, reporters would probably have convinced him. But Ohtani is not just any other player. There is no American equivalent. He has become to Japan what Diego Maradona was to Argentina, or what Julio Cesar Chavez was to Mexico: an athlete demonstrating the virtues of his culture to the world. Japanese parents want their children to grow up to be like him. Women dreamed of marrying him. (There have been reports of women skipping work because they were shocked to learn they had been kidnapped.)
Ohtani isn't just famous. He is famous in a country where special emphasis is placed on celebrities. Japan has fewer TV stations and fewer entertainment options than the United States. When an athlete or artist becomes famous, they become everywhere. Practically everyone knows who they are.
This dynamic led to Ohtani's marriage being treated like a royal wedding, with Japanese television stations boycotting live programs to relay the news. There will be an appetite for information about Ohtani's relationship, especially about the identity of his wife, and the country's aggressive tabloid magazines will certainly do everything they can to satisfy this hunger.
Last year, Ohtani gave an interview as part of an advertising campaign in which he described his vision for his home life.
“Including marriage and children – how do I say this? – I would like to live in peace,” Ohtani said. “I think having a peaceful spirit is better than anything else. I would like my private life to be like that.”
Hanyou was deprived of such an experience.
Hanyu's cautionary tale should make the Japanese public sympathetic to Ohtani's request for privacy, but that alone will not guarantee it. Ohtani should have known this, which is why additional measures were taken. The way he announced his marriage may not have made sense to the American public, but it did to anyone familiar with his culture.
