Rafu Wire Reports
GLENDALE, Ariz.—Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani said Thursday he is “happy” with married life but kept secret the identity of his wife.
Speaking to reporters in Glendale, where he is in camp with the team, Ohtani, 29, said he first met the woman three or four years ago in Japan and they got engaged last year.
“I feel happy being together with her,” Ohtani said, adding that before deciding to marry, he was able to imagine being with the woman for a long time.
Ohtani was coy when asked about his partner and did not reveal when or how they started dating, nor exactly when they got married.
After being asked if the marriage affected his decision to enter free agency last year before joining the Dodgers, he said, “No, not at all.”
“She respected my decision…and offered to come with me wherever I go. So, where I want to play baseball was my top priority,” he said.
Ohtani surprised fans by posting on Instagram on Thursday that he married the woman.
“Not only have I begun a new chapter in my career with the Dodgers but I also have (begun) a new life with someone from my native country of Japan who is very special to me and I wanted everyone to know I am now married,” Ohtani posted.
The Instagram post included a shot of Ohtani’s dog Dekopin, also known as Decoy, who gained a worldwide profile after appearing on TV alongside the Japanese two-way star as he accepted his 2023 American League Most Valuable Player award last November.
“Although we will be starting with a new team in a new environment, we hope that the two of us (and also one animal) will work together, support each other, and move forward together with our fans,” Ohtani wrote while requesting privacy for his and his wife’s families.
Fans in Japan expressed elation, envy and expectations Thursday after the surprise news.
“I am curious who she might be, but I’m sure she’s a good person if Ohtani has chosen her. I hope they’ll be very happy,” said Hinako Kon, 30, in Sapporo, Hokkaido. She said she watched Ohtani many times when he played for the Pacific League’s Hokkaido-based Nippon Ham Fighters from 2013 to 2017.
Some local fans admitted to more envious feelings. “I’m a guy and I’m jealous of his partner,” a man in his 30s said, adding that he hopes the marriage “can inspire him to even greater results.”
Based in the U.S. since 2018, the two-time unanimous American League MVP joined the Dodgers on a 10-year, $700 million contract in December after six years with the Angels.
In Ohtani’s home prefecture of Iwate in Japan’s northeast, the local Iwate Nipponewspaper published 11,000 copies of an extra edition heralding his marriage.
“I’m surprised. I thought he was already married to baseball,” laughed 59-year-old Keiji Kawamorita as he received a copy outside Morioka Station.
Outside Shimbashi Station in Tokyo, too, baseball aficionados and agnostics alike were pleased by the news.
“I feel like a son has gotten married,” said one 49-year-old woman who works in medicine. She said a friend who is the same age as Ohtani messaged her to say she was “shocked” and wanted to take the day off.
“My friend and I both have no interest in baseball, but there really is no athlete in Japan like him who has such interest from everyone,” she said.
Despite the curiosity as to the identity of his wife, self-employed Yuki Nakamura, a 27-year-old fan of western Japan’s Orix Buffaloes, said he does not intend to go searching for information on her because “Ohtani himself didn’t go into much detail.”
With 25-year-old Yoshinobu Yamamoto having left the Buffaloes to join Ohtani at the Dodgers this season, Nakamura instead said he hopes that “they both together can win the World Series and bring even more joy.”