Shohei Ohtani Interview Sparks Uproar Online Over Alleged Secret Accounts

It seems like a super “big” couple has emerged.

Shohei Ohtani, who announced his marriage to a Japanese woman on February 29th, held a press conference on March 1st with the Dodgers. However, in an interview with the sports magazine “Number,” released on March 7th, he provided more details about his marriage, titled “Talking About Married Life in 2024.” A portion of this interview was released online on the 2nd, sparking a lot of discussion.

Through this interview, it’s become quite evident that his partner is the former basketball player known as “Ako,” whose identity has been the subject of rumors for some time.

In the interview, Ohtani first talks about his partner’s age:

“She’s younger. About two years younger, I think. I’m turning 30 this year, and she’s. probably 28 years old. If I’m wrong, I’m sorry (laughs).”

Ako-san is indeed 28 years old this year.

“I couldn’t be with her on my birthday (July 5th) because it was during the season, but we were together on her birthday,” Ohtani mentions.

Her birthday falls in December, during the off-season.

“Ohtani previously mentioned that he prefers someone who can play sports and is tall. Ako-san, being a basketball player, stands at around 180 centimeters tall. Although she was part of a corporate team, she retired last year and deleted all her Instagram accounts. Some media outlets have even reported that she has already moved to the United States.

Ohtani mentioned that he gave Ako-san shoes that fit her size, which is not surprising for a basketball player, considering their potentially larger foot size. Interestingly, Ako-san’s brother, who is a rugby player, suddenly made his Instagram and X (possibly referring to other social media platforms) accounts private. Perhaps he didn’t want to deal with various inquiries,” a sports newspaper reporter says.

Furthermore, there might have been hints from Ako-san’s basketball team colleagues.

“One of her teammates posted on Instagram Stories, ‘Everyone around me seems to be happy lately,’ attracting attention. Additionally, Maki Takada, captain of the Japanese women’s national team, intentionally posted, ‘Just to clarify, it’s not me,’ in response to Ohtani’s marriage. Rumors were spreading within the basketball community, so they might have wanted to address it preemptively before inquiries started flooding in on social media,” says a source related to entertainment news programs.

On the internet, attention has been drawn to the fact that since around March 2023, Ohtani has been tying the drawstrings of his hoodie into a bow in the front. The reason for this is because Ako-san also has a tendency to tie the drawstrings of her hoodie into a bow in the front.

“Some people even started speculating, ‘Could it be that she tied it for him?!’ It’s become a festive atmosphere of speculation,” notes one source.

The shock of Ohtani’s marriage has also rippled into the entertainment world.

 

During the interview, Ohtani revealed that he and his wife had a date where they connected over the phone between Japan and America while simultaneously watching Netflix. He mentioned that during this time, they were watching shows like “VIVANT” (TBS) and “House of Ninja”.

Then, the official STAFF account of Kakei posted:

“Thank you very much for watching #HouseOfNinja together as a couple, causing a huge panic within the company! #Netflix Wow.”

Additionally, Kakei himself posted on X:

“Wow!”

and posted 19 fire emojis and 3 ninja emojis.

Amidst the celebratory mood across Japan, on the 1st, the stock price of a company unrelated to Ohtani, called “Ohtani Kogyo,” surged from the previous day’s closing price of 8710 yen to 10,000 yen, an increase of 1290 yen, signaling a celebratory shot.

Regardless of whether his wife is Ako-san or not, it seems that people all over Japan are sharing a happy mood in response to Ohtani’s marriage.