The Copy That Changed Everything: Hotaka Yamakawa on His Japan Series Awakening
From a season of suffering to Japan Series MVP...... revealed all the drama behind the counterattack--.
The “thing” he was looking for was right under his feet
“Of course, I was happy to win the MVP, but becoming Japan’s No. 1 was what mattered most. I’ve experienced four league championships before, but during my Seibu days we were eliminated in the Climax Series. Two years ago, we lost in the Japan Series. At last, my long-held wish came true. It was a really grueling season, so maybe the baseball gods gave me a reward at the very end.”
In the 2025 Japan Series against Central League champions Hanshin, SoftBank’s Hotaka Yamakawa (34) exploded at the plate, hitting three home runs in three straight games, driving in seven runs, and batting .385. He pulled the team to their long-awaited Japan Series title with his own bat and was named series MVP. Yet during the regular season, he struggled, finishing with a .226 average, 23 home runs, and 62 RBIs—ending the year without a single title.
“Throughout the season, there was always pain somewhere in my body, and each time I had to change my form. When my oblique injury healed, my Achilles tendon would start hurting—that sort of thing. Ideally, you want to play when you’re in perfect condition, but as a regular, it’s your job to play through injuries and heal while you’re playing. That just didn’t go well for me this year. Because of the pain, I had no choice but to cut back on practice, and I couldn’t find my ‘ideal form’—that’s really what it came down to.
My ideal form changes every year. I look for it every season, and sometimes I find it as early as two or three days after Opening Day. I’ve had three seasons where I hit more than 40 home runs, and in all of them I found my ideal form at an early stage.
In 2024, when I won two titles, it was in August. When you encounter a form that makes you think, ‘This is it!’ or ‘I’ve got it!,’ there’s a stretch afterward where the home runs really pile up. Even if your hitting slips a bit, you have a base to return to, so you can make adjustments. But last year, I couldn’t build that base until the very end.
What happens when you don’t have a base? You have to bat with a different form every time. You go to the plate feeling uncertain. It’s a problem even before you face the pitcher. It’s like you’re fighting yourself and that was truly painful.”
Drawing on his long experience, Yamakawa analyzes that when things go well, I have an ideal form—a base—that gives me confidence, and the results tend to follow. The thing he was searching for, which he was unable to find until the end of the season, turned up in an unexpected place.
“In Game 1 of the Japan Series, which we lost to Hanshin, I wasn’t in the starting lineup, so I was on the bench. From there, I was watching Hanshin’s Teruaki Sato (26). Not his at-bats, but his practice swings. And then I started paying attention to how he used his legs. It looked to me like his weight was on his heels. At that moment, I thought, ‘Ah!’—a flash of inspiration. I figured, ‘Let me try that.’
So before Game 2, during batting practice, I tried setting up with my right toe lifted and my weight placed extremely on my heel. It was the first time I’d ever done something like that in my baseball career. It was a complete spur-of-the-moment idea. And then—my hits were absolutely flying, to the point where I thought, ‘Isn’t this the best since I came to the Hawks?’ The ball was traveling incredible distances to right, center, and left.
‘I’m starting today, so I’ll try it in the game too.’
When I did, my first at-bat produced a huge double blasted into the right-center gap, and I knew right away: ‘This is it.’ Then in my second at-bat, I hit a home run. Finding my ideal form was exhilarating or rather, it was a relief—like, ‘I can make this work now.’ The MVP swing was actually me copying Sato. That’s the truth.”
“The at-bat that made me happiest last year”
“There was one more thing I found—or rather, reaffirmed—in the Japan Series: just how important mental stability is. You get signs for hit-and-runs or baserunning, but in the batter’s box I’m basically allowed to swing freely. So during the Japan Series, I made a conscious effort not to panic or rush.
As I mentioned earlier, all season long I had been going to the plate with a sense of unease, so for the Series I focused on playing with dignity and calm. I took my stretching and warm-ups carefully. I even took my time drinking my coffee. And in doing so, I made a realization.
In Game 5 of the Japan Series, we were down two runs when I came up in a situation where one swing could tie the game. On the mound was Hanshin’s left-handed reliever, Masaki Oyokawa (24). There were runners on base, so Oyokawa threw over once. Then I stepped back into the box and set my stance—and the roar was incredible. We were in completely hostile territory at Koshien, so it wasn’t cheering. It was more like, ‘Shut him down!’ ‘Yamakawa, please don’t hit anymore!’ Everyone was practically wishing against me.
I was so focused in the box that the noise came across like a steady whoosh, but that atmosphere—the air, the smell, the sound—is something only I could experience. In that moment, I remembered, ‘This is the true thrill of batting cleanup.’ It was a feeling I hadn’t had during the regular season, a feeling you could never experience if you’re fidgeting nervously at the plate. In the end, I was held to a hard-hit liner to center, but that at-bat was the happiest and most enjoyable one I had all of last year.”
We are in a fairy tale
Last season, Yamakawa says he tried to learn a new form about 1,000 times. Determined to fully ingrain the ideal form he finally discovered into his body, he wasted no time after the Japan Series, getting back to work after just one day off. He declined the team’s championship trip to Hawaii, rented a ballpark in Fukuoka Prefecture until mid-February, and has been pouring himself into voluntary training. His reputation as a practice junkie, arriving at the stadium earlier than anyone else since his Seibu days, has only intensified.
“I’ve gotten used to the heel-weighted swing. This time of year is ideal for locking in one specific thing. Now I want to rebuild my body again. I’m also controlling my weight. It’s about building a body that won’t get injured.
“That said, if you ask whether this means I’ll hit well this year, that’s not necessarily the case. It’s just ‘better than having nothing.’ I’ve decided ‘This is the form I’ll use’ before and failed badly many times. Once the season starts, there’s a real chance I’ll be hitting with a completely different form. It’s a tough world, isn’t it? (laughs)
“There are players who pump themselves up before stepping into the batter’s box, but that didn’t suit me. What I’ve learned playing professionally is that ‘technique wins in games.’ The better player wins. You get better through practice. Sometimes technique is refined in games, but fundamentally, I believe it’s the accumulation of practice that moves you in games.
But you know, I don’t feel like I’m making an effort at all. It’s just play to me. It’s my job, but it’s play. The more I practiced, the more walls I ran into, but getting better is fun and interesting.
I do get paid, but that’s not why I do it. I just can’t forget that one instant when I hit a home run. I want people to praise me and be happy. The joy of hitting outweighs the frustration of not hitting by far, so all I think about is, ‘How should I hit the next one?’
Looking back on the days gone by, there were plenty of painful and difficult times. There were even moments when I thought about quitting baseball. But in the end, all I can think is, ‘It was fun.’ I’m sure what’s to come will be the same. Last season was tough, but it was just as fun. It feels like being in a high school club—youthful, almost.
When I win the home run title, I sometimes think, ‘Who else but me could win it?’ But then the next year, I suddenly can’t hit at all. Because the answers don’t come easily, you never get bored. I’m sure I’ll never find the final answer. That’s why it’s interesting. It feels like I’m living in a dream, or a fairy tale.”
From the January 23, 2026, issue of “FRIDAY”
PHOTO： Ryoji Shigemasa