TOKYO — The baseball-mad country of Japan greeted perhaps the brightest star it has ever produced with silence.
When Shohei Ohtani stepped into the batter’s box to open Major League Baseball’s season against his fellow countryman, Shota Imanaga, the 42,365 fans inside the Tokyo Dome quieted. Such is the custom. The Chicago Cubs were technically the home team in this international showcase. But it’s the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, unmatched in their spending and envied for their dominance in the sport, whose presence looms largest in this country.
No one is more influential than Ohtani. It’s Ohtani’s face that is plastered on advertisements throughout Tokyo and beyond. Ohtani whose fingerprints have been used to “paint Japan Dodger blue.” Ohtani who leads this talented generation of players, and who found himself again as the center of attention on Tuesday as the Dodgers defeated the Cubs, 4-1.
“It’s been a while that I felt actually this nervous playing a game,” Ohtani said.
That represented a rare moment of introspection. The night’s history has been anticipated for the better part of a year. But Japan’s baseball community has been building toward moments like this for more than a century. Being the face of his home country’s iconic moment meant something different, even for a two-way star seemingly capable of doing anything on a baseball field.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shohei nervous,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “One thing I did notice is how emotional he got during the Japanese national anthem. That was really something that was very telling, how emotional he was.”
The thousands inside the Tokyo Dome and the millions watching on television bore witness to the first-ever Opening Day matchup of Japanese-born pitchers as Imanaga delivered four no-hit innings and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who 15 months ago received the richest contract ever for a pitcher, went five innings, allowing one run while showing signs of dominance in getting the win. Seiya Suzuki hit second in the order as the Cubs’ designated hitter, an acknowledgment of his value for a franchise seeking a breakthrough.
The event’s history, and Ohtani’s place in it, was reflected in the feted baseball hero who made an appearance before it began. No person has ever compiled more home runs in professional baseball than Sadaharu Oh, who hit 868 over 22 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants. The 84-year-old Oh’s presence on the field during batting practice was akin to an imperial visit. Roberts, who dined with Oh this last December, greeted him with childlike joy.
“Dream come true,” Roberts said.
Hall of Famers like Ken Griffey Jr. and Cooperstown-bound CC Sabathia lined up with current players like the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández for photos, looking to preserve a piece of history even as it was still being written.
“I don’t think that there was a Japanese baseball player in Japan that didn’t watch this game tonight,” Roberts said. “I’m sure that they can see themselves in this situation.”
Yet whenever Ohtani stepped up to the plate, a sea of phones and flashbulbs greeted his every move. The three-time MVP has become the face not just of the sport, but of Japanese life, the biggest star in a monoculture that adores him. At 7:10 p.m., the cameras trained on him as he grounded out against Imanaga. In the third inning, the crowd stirred, then groaned as Ohtani’s line drive found the back of second baseman Jon Berti’s glove rather than the shiny green turf.
The crowd roared to life in the fifth inning as Ohtani cracked a single that, at 107.4 mph, nearly struck the Dodgers’ Andy Pages on the basepaths. Instead, it shot through the right side of the infield for the Dodgers’ first hit. A batter later, Tommy Edman tied the game with a single of his own. Teoscar Hernández chopped a ground ball for a potential double play that Berti instead fired past Michael Busch at first base — Ohtani scored, becoming just the second Japanese player after Hideki Matsui to score a run in his home country in a major-league game. They roared again when Ohtani hooked a double down the right-field line in the ninth inning, coming around to score again two batters later.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 18, 2025
With that, the Dodgers began their title defense with a victory despite missing two of their stars. Mookie Betts, fighting an illness severe enough that he’s shed 15 pounds, traveled back to Los Angeles to recuperate. And Freddie Freeman was a late scratch from the starting lineup due to what the team called left rib discomfort.
Those absences aside, every element of the night seemed like a fantasy for the sport, which chose these two squads for the international assignment nearly a year ago. The Dodgers have embraced Japan more than ever before, committing more than $1 billion combined to Ohtani and Yamamoto in December 2023 and adding to what they hope is a competitive and financial advantage in the market this past offseason in signing Roki Sasaki, who is set to make his major-league debut Wednesday. Their bottom lines are healthy, and their business opportunities have seemingly increased by the day.
“I had a luncheon today with all of our sponsors,” Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten said in the hours before his team took the global stage. “It was a big luncheon. And they are all so pleased. Whenever you have a customer that’s that happy with you, it’s very gratifying.”
The Cubs, trying to return to contention, have leaned back into the Japanese pipeline. In the days before the series began, manager Craig Counsell suggested that the bonding experience fostered by spending a week untethered on the other side of the planet could help sow the seeds of the next great iteration of the franchise in a make-or-break season.
“As much as anything, this is the word: kizuna,” Counsell said, “which is a Japanese word for bond…. This is the start of a journey for our team.”
A packed crowd and a frenetic atmosphere were a great way to start.
“It feels like a playoff environment, which is awesome,” said Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer. “Those are the butterflies that you want, that’s the energy that you want. There’s no feeling like the postseason when everyone’s hanging on every pitch. I have a feeling this is going to feel that way. It’s good for our players to feel that.”
The exhibition games against Japanese clubs such as the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers provided an introduction beyond quirks like the between-innings sushi race or the army of Pikachus who manned the night’s opening ceremonies. Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas recalled the tales of Venezuelan ballplayers Alex Ramirez and Alex Cabrera, who rose to stardom playing in Japan’s highest league, Nippon Professional Baseball. The NPB, they said, was the closest comparison to winter ball in Latin America.
“The Japanese culture and fans live baseball,” Rojas said.
In Japan, of course, it sounds a little different.
“I think it’s great how it’s pitch silent while the home team is pitching,” Dodgers utilityman Kiké Hernández said. “And then it’s just like a party when they’re hitting. That’s my kind of party.”
This party looked more like a continued coronation, not just for the defending World Series champions, but for the game’s biggest star and a country seizing a sporting moment.
(Photo: Philip Fong / AFP via Getty Images)
