<figure id="attachment_467855" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-467855" style="width: 2547px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="39939821"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/082556aa7755a7cef44de7dad0c75372.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-467855" class="wp-caption-text">Yakult retains top spot, thanks in part to Tsubakuro effect</figcaption></figure>
<h2> A Dollar-Box Character</h2>
 Yakult, led by manager Takahiro Ikeyama (60), has been on a roll since the start of the season and is in a fierce battle for the top spot with last year&#8217;s league champion Hanshin, and returning to the center of the circle is the team&#8217;s mascot character, Tsubakuro.
 Last February, it was learned that the staff member who had been in charge of Tsubakuro for many years had passed away. Not only the baseball team and players, but also celebrities from various fields, including entertainers, expressed their condolences.
 Tsubakuro was a free-spirited character who was a big hit with baseball fans when he would perform flip tricks with the then stadium DJ before games. There was no way the staff could immediately take over the direction he had developed over the years, so he was forced to suspend his activities for the 2025 season.
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 (A baseball team alumnus) During last season, Tsubakuro&#8217;s younger sister, Tsubami, took over the role of understudy. However, at the general shareholders meeting of the baseball team&#8217;s parent company held last June, shareholders asked about Tsubakuro&#8217;s future, and team president Tetsuya Hayashida commented, &#8220;We would like to have him reappear.
 In fact, the baseball team leaders were quite cautious about Tsubakuro&#8217;s return. This is because none of the staff members could reproduce his poisonous behavior while balancing it with the zeitgeist of Reiwa&#8217;s compliance. On the other hand, Tsubakuro was famous within the baseball team as a dollar-box character, and his popularity was split in two with Munetaka Murakami (26), who was always in first or second place in merchandise sales.
 However, Murakami was transferred to the White Sox of the U.S. Major League Baseball this season through posting. The absence of Tsubakuro had a major impact, and the official merchandise store located in Jingu Gaien, not far from the stadium, was temporarily closed. It is said that the high rent could no longer be covered.
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 The team&#8217;s sales staff were in a panic, and they strongly urged the leadership to bring Tsubakuro back to the team, saying, &#8221; If we don&#8217;t take immediate action, the team&#8217;s management will be in trouble.
 The sales of merchandise are a major source of revenue for the team&#8217;s management. In fact, it was Tsubakuro&#8217;s funds that enabled us to sign Jose Osuna (33), who has a three-year contract totaling 1.3 billion yen plus piece value, and Domingo Santana (33), who has a three-year contract totaling 1.4 billion yen plus piece value, at the same time from last year. Without the return of the baseball team&#8217;s mascot, it is obvious that funds for player reinforcements will be scarce. Tsubakuro is no longer just the team&#8217;s mascot.
 Yakult has kept its record so far thanks to the success of its young players. The return of Tsubakuro has great significance not only for the fans but also for the management of the team.

 Kyodo News

 Yakult's famous character, Tsubakuro, has finally returned. Behind the long-awaited reappearance of Tsubakuro was a controversial debate among the team's employees.

Yakult&#8217;s Tsubakuro&#8217;s return to the Yakult team was made possible by &#8220;a strong push from the sales department&#8221;&#8230; &#8220;He&#8217;s not just a mascot, he&#8217;s a dollar box!&#8221;

Yakult’s Tsubakuro’s return to the Yakult team was made possible by “a strong push from the sales department”… “He’s not just a mascot, he’s a dollar box!”

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