<figure id="attachment_460589" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-460589" style="width: 2248px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="9e1f0371"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/9b15ac82f5b7d44f350d74d3bf26807d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-460589" class="wp-caption-text">Mrs. Mamiko flew back to Japan with Shohei Otani and their daughter in a private jet for the WBC.</figcaption></figure>
<h2> Samurai Japan Finish First in the First Round of the World Baseball Classic</h2>
 The &#8220;Samurai Japan&#8221; team came through the first round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in first place. The Japanese archipelago is in the midst of WBC fever.
 Masanao Yoshida (32), who sits in the No. 4 position, hit back-to-back home runs in the games against Korea and Australia. The pitching staff is also in good shape, with Atsuki Taneichi (27), nicknamed the &#8220;strikeout man,&#8221; pitching a solid second half of the game,&#8221; said a sports journalist.
 The wives of the players are behind the scenes supporting such a strong Japanese team. One of the most well-known &#8220;WBC wives&#8221; is Otani&#8217;s wife, Mamiko.
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 This time, Mamiko arrived at Haneda Airport by private jet with Otani and their daughter. While many of the other Major Leaguers went directly to Nagoya, where they were practicing, Otani spent time with his family before joining the team. This shows the bond between the family and Otani, and above all, Mamiko is supporting Otani.
 Like Otani, who is very family-oriented, Seiya Suzuki, 31, is a major leaguer and a key member of the successful Samurai Japan team. His wife is Airi Hatakeyama, 31, a former rhythmic gymnast who represented Japan at the London and Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
 Mrs. Airi was so popular that after her retirement she became an anchor on NHK&#8217;s &#8220;Sunday Sports,&#8221; attracting attention beyond her sport. She and Suzuki started dating in ‛18, and they reached the goal about a year later.
<h2> After two years of intense pursuit, they developed a relationship.</h2>
 Since the beginning of their relationship, the two have dated openly and without concealment. This magazine has often witnessed them together.
 The meeting between the two was unexpected. That day, Mrs. Airi was supposed to be working on TV, but a typhoon happened to cancel it. She had to cancel her work, so she attended a dinner party with the president of her agency, where she met Suzuki, who was also there. She herself said, &#8220;If the typhoon had not come, I would not have married him,&#8221; and it was truly a &#8220;fateful encounter.
 Like Mrs. Airi, Mrs. Rumi (39), wife of Yusei Kikuchi (34), was also a sportscaster.
 Rumi was an anchor for &#8220;World Sports MLB&#8221; (NHK BS) and other programs, and Kikuchi fell in love at first sight with her. Rumi was moved by his single-minded devotion to her, but she has revealed that Yusei is a &#8220;husbandless man&#8221; in the home. However, she is fluent in English, and I am sure that she is supporting him in his life in the U.S.&#8221; (sportswriter)
 (Sportswriter) As many players have crossed the ocean, the manners and customs of the major league baseball world are becoming more prevalent in Japan. The &#8220;wives of the players&#8221; are becoming more and more prominent in the Japanese baseball world, as the &#8220;manners&#8221; of the Majors, where players&#8217; wives are the focus of attention, such as parades with their spouses and &#8220;wives&#8217; parties,&#8221; are becoming more widespread. The &#8220;WBC Wives&#8221; are undoubtedly becoming more and more important in the major leagues.
 On the FRIDAY Digital &#8220;Entertainment Reporter Channel&#8221; (YouTube), active reporters are posting articles on the &#8220;WBC Wives. In addition to Mamiko and Rumi, they also introduce Masanao Yoshida, who developed a protein product with his wife, and Rumi Koizono, who walks down the runway as a married couple. The article also details the behind-the-scenes lives of other WBC wives, such as Masanao Yoshida, who developed the protein protein with his wife, and Kaito Koen, who walks the runway with his wife.
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 Kumataro Arai

 The Samurai Japan team has topped the first round of the WBC, starting with Shohei Otani's grand slam home run, followed by Masanao Yoshida's home run in back-to-back games. The man behind the scenes is ......

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