Los Angeles CNN —
Her nails are painted blue and white, with the Dodgers logo on one nail and her uniform number 17 on the other. Takayo Hizume had her nails done at a nail salon in her home in Japan, then flew about 10 hours to Los Angeles and stayed in California for a few days, at considerable expense given the weak yen.
All of this effort is for one man: Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani, a 6-foot-4 star hitter and pitcher, has been attracting fans from across the Pacific for years, but his historic signing with the Dodgers sparked an influx of Japanese tourists to Los Angeles during his first season with the team.
And he hasn’t even pitched yet.
Ohtani, who is recovering from elbow surgery, has hit this season but is not scheduled to pitch for the Dodgers until 2025.
Still, a major Japanese travel agency told CNN that up to 200 Japanese customers are booking tickets for each Dodgers home game.
Plus, with 12 new Japanese sponsors, stadium tours in Japanese and a new Japanese food menu, the Dodgers are taking full advantage of the Ohtani effect.
Robin Beck/AFP/Getty Images
A mural of Los Angeles Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani is painted on the side of the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles.
When asked why he traveled halfway around the world to watch a baseball game, Hizume said he considered Ohtani like his own son.
Hizume spoke in Japanese, with the general manager of the Miyako Hotel, where he was staying in Los Angeles, standing next to him and interpreting.
Hizume explained that he felt a connection because his own son played baseball and that Ohtani is like a son to him in Japan.
General manager Akira Yuhara said this is a shared sentiment among the Japanese public and that he feels Ohtani represents the best young talent in the country.
“Everyone loves Shohei’s heart. He’s [a] “He is a very honest person,” Yuhara says.
His honesty likely earned him the respect of fans after federal investigators cleared Ohtani in the recent sports betting scandal, in which his former interpreter pleaded guilty to defrauding the player out of $17 million.
“He’s so awesome, isn’t he?” said Judy Crow, who brought her brother from Japan for a Japanese tour at Dodger Stadium. “Wait for him to start pitching for us! He’s amazing!”
Harry Howe/Getty Images
Shohei Ohtani warms up before a preseason game against the Los Angeles Angels at Dodger Stadium on March 24, 2024.
Some Japanese fans have traveled overseas to see Ohtani play, some as far as South Korea and others as far as Southern California in recent years when Ohtani played for the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, southeast of Los Angeles.
Several of the six new Japanese guides at Dodger Stadium previously worked at Angels Stadium, serving the same fans.
Even when the Dodgers aren’t playing at home, groups of Japanese tourists flock to an empty Dodger Stadium for a chance to see the dugout, the field, the press box and the championship trophy. Tours in Japanese are available four days a week.
In addition to tours in Japanese, visitors will also find familiar flavors and advertisements.
Dodger Stadium executive chef Christine Gerrits said the stadium will offer all the traditional ballpark foods like Dodger Dogs, as well as new menu items such as chicken katsu sandwiches, sushi, black pork sausage and takoyaki, Japanese round fried foods stuffed with octopus.
“We had to give the takoyaki a little L.A. flavor,” Gerrits said, pointing out the traditional and tempura flavors, as well as ones with salsa and cheese and ones drizzled with guacamole.
Norma Galeana/CNN
Kay Ponack will guide you on a Japanese tour of Dodger Stadium.
Mika Hayashi, an Ohtani fan from Nagoya, said the guacamole and cheese takoyaki had a great “American taste” and might symbolize that being American often means blending cultures from around the world.
And no celebration of “America’s Pastime” is complete without welcoming legions of fans from around the world.
Hayashi and her sister have gone to see Ohtani before. When asked why they are such big fans, Nanoha said, “He’s [a] He’s a great baseball player and very cute!”
The home-game frenzy begins long before kickoff, when groups on special VIP tours and contingents of Japanese and American media gather behind the ropes on the field to watch Ohtani emerge from the dugout to warm up.
In early July, the Dodgers hosted a “Japan Heritage Night” sponsored by Japanese retailer Daiso, featuring performers and giveaways.
In the distance, advertising boards on either side of the stadium are covered with signs from other new Japanese sponsors, including Daiso, Toyo Tire and probiotic drinks company Yakult.
Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten said home advertising space has been sold out and sponsors are now buying advertising space in other stadiums when the Dodgers play on the road.
“We were expecting a surge, but we really didn’t see anything like this,” Kasten said. “This is good for everybody. It’s good for the entire baseball community. And I think the entire baseball community is really proud that we’re opening this up to our international fan base in a much bigger way than we’ve ever done before.”
Kasten said there are tour buses dropping off fans from Japan at Dodger Stadium “morning and night.”
Many of the tour buses also stop in Little Tokyo, where visitors can see Otani’s 150-foot-tall mural, which has become a talking point in Japan.
The artwork, titled “LA Rising,” was freehand painted by artist Robert Vargas and painted on the side of the Miyako Hotel.
Fans can stop on a street corner, point their phone at a QR code on the sidewalk, then point their phone at the mural to see an augmented reality video of Ohtani swinging and pitching, after which announcer Vin Scully will call out, “It’s time for Dodgers baseball!”
Vargas said she painted the piece in nine days at the beginning of the season to bring together everyone at the intersection of Los Angeles’ Asian American and Latino communities.
“This area has been hit hard by COVID-19 and as a longtime resident of Downtown Los Angeles, I felt a strong desire to give back and support the Asian American community,” Vargas said. “Ohtani represents how to do things right on and off the field, and we wanted to celebrate that.”
Stores such as Miyako Hotel, Mister Ramen, and Faber say they have seen customer numbers double compared to the same period last year.
“In 2023, Los Angeles welcomes 230,000 tourists from Japan, a 91.7% increase over 2022,” said Adam Burke, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism Board. “Our goal in this market is to attract more Japanese people to Los Angeles to not only experience our city’s sports teams, but to also broaden their horizons and extend their stay by experiencing other authentic and diverse Los Angeles neighborhoods.”
The group said international tourism is improving as the country recovers from the pandemic, but the 91.7% increase in visitors from Japan in particular far outpaced the overall increase in international tourists that year.
Additionally, the LA Tourism Board estimates that 80% to 90% of tourists from Japan visit Dodger Stadium at least once during their stay in Los Angeles.
Natasha Chen/CNN
Hiroko Hinata, who runs Mister Ramen, posed for a photo holding a bowl of rice with Ohtani’s Dodgers uniform number on it.
Yuhara says he can actually find the Miyako Hotel lobby filled with Japanese guests in Dodgers uniforms getting ready to go at 3 p.m. on home game days, and that rooms are fully booked during the home series.
A CNN search for hotel rooms in downtown Los Angeles found that hotel rates are higher during Dodgers home games — the difference in hotel rates per night can be more than $100 — but hotels like the Miyako Hotel can be completely booked on game days, which continue into September.
Across the street, Mr. Ramen, a ramen shop that has been in business for over 30 years, is offering a 50% discount on the first 17 bowls of ramen the day after Ohtani hits a home run. Faber is offering a free bowl of ramen every time Ohtani hits a home run.
Don Tahara, owner of Faber, said it was a unifying moment: “When Shohei steps up to bat, the conversation stops.”
Whether the fans are Japanese, Japanese-American like Tahara, or people with no connection to Japan whatsoever, the craze is still going strong.
CNN’s Shania Baweja, Norma Galeana and Jason Kravarik contributed to this story.
