Jun Mizuno’s bar in Toyama, Japan, used to open at 5 p.m. But after Shohei Ohtani began his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers this year, Mizuno started opening at 8 a.m. so his customers could cheer for the national baseball hero over whiskey highballs and lemon soju sodas.
Thursday morning was no exception. Mizuno turned on the TV in his bar, Otoko Bar Mizuno Sake Store, and his regulars watched Ohtani win his first World Series, as the Dodgers beat the Yankees, 7-6, in Game 5.
“The entire country is thrilled,” Mizuno said, as a banner of Ohtani as tall as his bar hung outside the entrance.
Japan has loved baseball for decades, but Ohtani’s appearances in the World Series alongside his Japanese teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto elevated the games to soaring levels of popularity.
About 15.2 million television viewers in Japan watched each of the first two games of the World Series on average, compared with 14.5 million in the United States, according to Major League Baseball.
In Japan, the World Series games began at 9 a.m., so people watched over breakfast or during their workdays. Mizuno’s bar in the coastal city of Toyama offered a special morning set for the games: eggs, bacon, cheese toast and black coffee.
Ohtani, a two-time American League Most Valuable Player who in previous seasons excelled both as a hitter and as a starting pitcher, played only as a designated hitter this year after having elbow surgery. After another outstanding regular season, he went just 2-for-19 in the World Series, failing to get on base in Game 5. He also injured his shoulder in Game 2.
Japanese fans watched his every move anyway.
“Ohtani sells,” said Jim Allen, who has covered Japanese baseball for Kyodo News since 2012, adding that Kyodo’s English-language articles about the player were about six times as popular as other articles. “The networks that were broadcasting the World Series games are basically doing nonstop Ohtani coverage.”
At the Tokyo headquarters of Nishikawa, a bedding company that Ohtani promotes, about a hundred employees surrounded a TV screen near the office’s entrance to watch the final inning of Game 5, said Yuna Mori, a company spokeswoman.
“He’s put together an unprecedented season, so everybody’s watching,” said John Gibson, a Japanese-to-English interpreter who lived in Japan for 30 years.
“I imagine the bosses are coming in and putting the TV on themselves and holding the remote,” he added.
It’s no surprise that Japan is watching a lot of baseball. When Ohtani led Japan to the championship at last year’s World Baseball Classic in Miami, more than 42 percent of Japanese households watched their country defeat the United States during the workday on a Wednesday.
M.L.B. has taken notice. It will open the 2025 season with the Dodgers playing the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo. The Dodgers played the San Diego Padres in this year’s season opener in Seoul, where Ohtani drew massive crowds.
Japanese broadcasters are aware, too. The creators of the hugely popular anime “One Piece” pushed back a season premiere ahead of the World Series so as not to compete with Ohtani and the Dodgers.
Ohtani, who is the first M.L.B. player to dominate in both hitting and pitching since Babe Ruth a century ago, last year signed a record-breaking $700 million deal to play with the Dodgers for 10 years. Last month, Ohtani became the first player to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in one season.
Oshu, his hometown in northern Japan, has celebrated his every turn. The city government hosted World Series watch parties this week, and hundreds of residents showed up with Dodgers shirts and noise makers.
The exact size of the television audience throughout the World Series was not available on Thursday. But it’s clear that Japan’s TV viewership figures for the first four games, at least, eclipsed the domestic audience for the Japan Series, the national baseball championship that happened to coincide with the World Series, according to Video Research, a marketing research firm in Tokyo.
“You wouldn’t know that the Japan Series is happening right now,” said Jason Coskrey, a sports journalist in Tokyo who has worked at The Japan Times since 2007.
Coskrey watched the final game of the World Series in his office on his iPad. A co-worker looked over his shoulder to watch the last out.
“Everything’s been about Ohtani,” he said. “He’s front-page news. This is probably going to lead the news broadcast tonight. He’s like a supernova.”
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