The Hachi #5: Breathing in, breathing out
A week of scandal, suspense and speculation
EDITOR’S NOTE: Shortly after I sent the email out, I was directed to media reports indicating the JFA is working to walk back Junya Ito’s withdrawal from the Japan squad, which somewhat changes the nature of the first item. I’ve added some bolded/italic updates for the web version.
Apologies for the late newsletter and lack of intro — I’m mostly recovered from that head cold I got hit with last week — and able to breathe through my nose again — but still dealing with a couple after effects as I catch up on work, so this one will be a little more concise.
Also please look out for a poll at the end of this edition to help me better understand how I should try to time releases - your feedback matters! Thanks and enjoy this week’s Hachi.
1. A Samurai Blue scandal
There’s no good time for one of your national team’s top players to end up in the crosshairs of a major national tabloid, but in the midst of a continental championship knockout tournament is particularly not good.
That is, however, the situation Japan finds itself in after Shukan Shincho’s bombshell report on sexual assault allegations lodged by two Osaka women against winger Junya Ito.
According to the report, Ito took the two women to a hotel following the Samurai Blue’s June 2023 friendly against Peru; there he offered them more alcohol and — again, allegedly — forced himself onto at least one of the women while they were both intoxicated.
Shincho says one of the women reached out to Ito’s side seeking an apology in September and began negotiating through a lawyer in November, while Ito’s side claimed that any sexual activities were consensual and offered a financial settlement with an NDA attached.
The two women, believing Ito had not demonstrated remorse for his actions, filed a criminal complaint in Osaka in January.
Following Wednesday’s comfortable 3-1 win over Bahrain in the Asian Cup’s Round of 16 — which Ito watched from the bench — the Japan Football Association announced that he would leave the squad on Thursday, citing “consideration for his mental and physical condition.”
By Saturday morning, however, national team director Masakuni Yamamoto had told local media that the JFA was preparing to walk back its decision, saying that Samurai Blue players including captain Wataru Endo had spoken up in favor of keeping Ito in the squad:
“With (the team) aiming to win the tournament, the voices in favor of continuing to play with Ito were very strong,” said Yamamoto, who said the players’ opinions were “a very big factor” in the JFA’s move to reverse its earlier decision.
…
“I’m sure he’s dealing with a lot emotionally, but he understands that his teammates want to play with him, and that’s going to give him a lot of energy. He may want to play, but he’s in a very difficult position and we want to support him.”
Stade de Reims, Ito’s French club, released a statement of their own backing their player, saying his “human qualities and behavior … have never had to be questioned by the club” and that they are “awaiting concrete elements which will shed light on the alleged facts.”
The player’s lawyers have denied the accusations, citing inconsistencies in the complaint and a lack of physical evidence — but the investigation is going to have to play out and it’s all going to get messier before it has a chance of getting cleaner.
The accusations against Ito follow a turbulent 2023 in which entertainment titan Johnny’s was brought down by a #MeToo scandal centered around company founder Johnny Kitagawa’s abuse of hundreds of male victims, some of whom were underage. Popular comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto is also staying away from the studio and the stage after several women came forward with sexual assault allegations late last year.
Ito’s potential departure, along with the expected withdrawal of midfielder Reo Hatate, who suffered a calf injury in the Bahrain game, will would leave the Samurai Blue at 24 players when they face Iran in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
2. Roki Sasaki puts the gun down
It took until the last week before spring training, but Roki Sasaki finally put pen to paper and renewed his contract with the Chiba Lotte Marines ahead of the 2024 NPB season.
This has been one of the most dramatic stories of the offseason, with Sasaki leaving the NPB players’ union and — according to some — holding out unless he received a guarantee that he’d be posted at the end of the 2024 season.
While the “Monster of Reiwa” clearly wants to cross the Pacific as soon as possible, the Marines would prefer to hold onto him for a couple more years, as there would be no limit to the size of the contract MLB clubs could offer Sasaki once he turns 25.
Baseball writer Shawn Spradling summed up the situation pretty well in this tweet, where he rightfully attributes Jim Allen and YakyuCosmopolitan for their thorough legwork on the story:
- Sasaki and Lotte reportedly had agreed in 2019, and again in 2022, that he would be posted “early,” but it seems the two sides disagree on what “early” actually means.
- Sasaki is coming off a season where he missed half the year with an oblique injury.
- Lotte is financially incentivized to hold onto Sasaki until he is 25 years old. If he stays until then, Lotte will receive 15-20% of his 9-figure contract ($300m? 400? 500?). Otherwise, he leaves a year from now at 23 years old and Lotte gets less than $1m as Sasaki would be subject to international bonus pool money.
The conservative nature of the posting system and NPB free agency results in fewer Japanese baseball players going overseas, especially compared to their soccer-playing peers.
But make no mistake: They see what peers like Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are accomplishing and they absolutely want in. As more young phenoms sign with ambitious agents, we could see similar standoffs in the future.
3. Terunofuji’s still got it
I wasn’t shy about my desire to see Kirishima win the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament and earn promotion to yokozuna, mostly out of my inherent love of New Things and a desire to see Terunofuji get to take the mountains of athletic tape off his knees for the last time.
Terunofuji had other plans, however, finishing 13-2 at the end of Sunday’s Day 15 action before beating sekiwake Kotonowaka in a solid playoff bout.
Kirishima’s fate was more-or-less sealed on Saturday, when he lost to Kotonowaka and dropped to 11-3. The ozeki would have needed to beat a rested Terunofuji1 on Sunday — on top of Kotonowaka losing to Tobizaru in his own Day 15 bout — to have a chance at redemption.
But once Kotonowaka won, Kirishima knew his fate was sealed — which possibly explains why he seemingly gave up and allowed fellow Mongolian Terunofuji to simply yeet him out of the ring.
Kirishima’s loss was Terunofuji’s gain, as the big man is just one more championship away from his 10th and dai-yokozuna status.
Meanwhile, Kotonowaka’s runner-up finish earned him the Outstanding Performance award and promotion to ozeki.
Though Kirishima changed his shikona (ring name) from Kiribayama following his ozeki promotion, Kotonowaka has announced that he’ll keep his name for one more tournament — the Osaka Basho in March — before changing to Kotozakura, the name used by his late yokozuna grandfather.
4. Matsuyama finally draws an ace
I’m no golf expert, but I’m fairly confident a hole-in-one is pretty good.
Per Golf Digest, Hideki Matsuyama’s first career hole-in-one — at last weekend’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines — came in his 247th PGA Tour event and 854th round.
The 31-year-old, who won the 2021 Masters, is currently ranked 54th in the world — marking the first time since 2013 that he’s fallen outside the top 50.
5. Silver — and maybe more waiting — for Team Japan
The long and winding doping case of Russian figure skater Kamina Valieva has finally reached the finish line, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport handing the 17-year-old a four-year competition ban and voiding her results going back to 2021 after finding that she intentionally took a banned substance.
Valieva’s case, news of which first emerged right in the middle of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, had left the results of the team competition at those Games in limbo, with the International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union declining to hold a medal ceremony at the time.
While it seems like the final standings are still somewhat in doubt — the ISU, for reasons it hasn’t elaborated on yet, has only dropped the Russian Olympic Committee down to third, much to the consternation of Canada — what is clear is that the United States has been upgraded from silver to gold, while Japan’s bronze will be bumped up to silver.
That will mean shinier medals for Team Japan, which consisted of men’s skaters Shoma Uno (short program) and Yuma Kagiyama (free skate), women’s skaters Wakaba Higuchi (short) and Kaori Sakamoto (free), pairs skaters Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, and ice dancers Misato Komatsubara and Tim Koleto.
The only question is when the skaters will receive their medals, with Canada’s protest against the current standings threatening to delay things further. The IOC had floated a ceremony during the 2024 Paris Olympics, and it would definitely be a bad look if they let this sit until the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics — where Valieva will theoretically be able to compete again after her ban expires.
6. Back to Pyongyang
As reported by Gekisaka and other Japanese outlets, the Asian Football Confederation has officially assigned a venue and kickoff time for Japan’s Asian joint qualifier against North (DPR) Korea, which is now officially set to play out at Kim Il Sung Stadium in Pyongyang.
The Samurai Blue are already 2-0 in a Group B that also includes minnows Syria and Myanmar; North Korea are the only real unknown by virtue of having basically shut their national team down between the end of 2019 and late 2023, when the country was in near-total lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On paper this group should be an absolute cakewalk for Japan — and it will be — but North Korea away is the exception due to all the unpredictability you’d expect out of a game in the world’s most reclusive dictatorship.
Check out the highlights of the last game between the two teams in Pyongyang, which took place in November 2011. Do you notice anything off?
Besides a crowd straight out of a political rally — or the background of a mid-2000s FIFA game — there was a complete lack of advertising anywhere around the pitch.2 Photographers weren’t allowed to bring any lenses longer than 150mm (300mm or 400mm are pretty much standards for soccer), and can be seen milling around the endlines as they weren’t even given chairs.
Around 150 Japanese supporters who made the trip — flying through Beijing as no direct flights exist between the two countries — did so under heavy restrictions: No cellphones; no cameras with GPS functionality; no drums, flags or banners.
Japan eventually lost 1-0 in a physical encounter, and postgame flash interviews suggested the players wanted to do nothing more than get the hell out of dodge.
With the two teams set to play each other at the National Stadium in Tokyo just five days earlier, I expect both games will be equally tempestuous, coming just a month after North Korea’s women’s team and Nadeshiko Japan will have played a similar home-and-away series for a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The JFA hasn’t announced whether a tour for Japanese fans will be arranged this time around, but one factor that might keep all but the most dedicated at home will be the potential impact that a history of travel to North Korea would have on plans to attend the 2026 World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
7. Is Kazuchika Okada WWE-bound?
The pro wrestling world is buzzing over Kazuchika “Rainmaker” Okada’s decision to leave New Japan Pro Wrestling in February after 17 years with the circuit.
The 36-year-old, who’s been a regular headliner at NJPW’s annual Wrestle Kingdom event at Tokyo Dome, is considered to be one of the best in the world, and reports seem to indicate that the next choice he makes will be between the WWE3 and rival U.S. promotion AEW.
Given Okada’s pedigree — he and Kenny Omega are the only wrestlers to have received seven stars from legendary wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, for their 70-minute battle at Dominion 6.9 in June 2018 — it’s fair to say this will be the biggest stateside move of a Japanese pro wrestler in the modern era, eclipsing even Shinsuke Nakamura’s signing with WWE in 2016.
For more on this from sources I trust, here’s the Write That Down crew discussing the Okada situation:
8. Massive milestone
Last but not least, I want to get in a big shoutout to the J-Talk Podcast, who hit their 500th episode this week as part of their 2024 J.League season previews.
I’m pretty sure I can’t embed Podbean audio here, so click the screenshot to go straight to the episode:
There’s much that could be written about J-Talk — and I did my part with my 2020 profile of Ben Maxwell, the show’s founder and a fellow blue-and-red brother in arms — but in the end it all pales in comparison to the legacy of these 500 episodes themselves, and how they’ve collected over a decade of community knowledge and insight into Japanese soccer.
I’ve had my share of guest appearances — I counted once but have long since forgotten the tally — and what’s cool is that lately I might only go on a couple times a year because there are just so many people in the community who have so much to share. The J-Talk Patreon has even enabled them to expand the family to include Extra Time, a second show featuring J2 and J3 coverage.
Like any other online community, the English-language J-soccer family has had its periods of volatility: Egos clash, servers crash, bloggers have kids and stop renewing their season tickets, Twitter takes over, you get the drill. But it’s endured, and we should all be grateful for the role the J-Talk Podcast has played in giving fans both new and old a constant source of information.
And now for that poll I promised, which will help me figure out a schedule going forward:
Whose Day 14 opponent, ozeki Hoshoryu, withdrew due to injury
Notably, a closed-door encounter between North and South Korea eight years later did feature pitchside hoardings according to the highlights, though I can’t tell if they’re all for North Korean companies or a mix of both North and South.