Yuki Yanagita’s Candid Interview: “I Still Have More to Grow as a Professional Baseball Player”

The changes continuing for a Baseball Superstar approacching 40

“I think professional baseball is ultimately a world where, if you can’t earn money, it’s over. It’s a simple and easy-to-understand world. Maybe that’s what makes it interesting.”

Yuki Yanagita (37), who has experienced seven Pacific League championships and eight Japan Series titles with the SoftBank Hawks, a perennial powerhouse in the league, is entering the final year of his seven-year contract. In the offseason of 2019, when he was 31, he declared that he would remain with the Hawks for life under a contract worth an estimated 4 billion yen in total. A player who has cemented his place in the franchise’s history is now battling the effects of aging that arrive day by day.

“This job has a strange lifestyle rhythm, doesn’t it? When I was younger, I could eat yakiniku after night games, drink until morning, sleep until the afternoon, and still play at full intensity every day. But if I tried to live that way now, I wouldn’t even be able to fall asleep. So when we have night games at our home stadium, I make sure I’m in bed by midnight. Even on road trips, I try to get into bed by 1 a.m.

I’ve also started paying attention to my diet. I hardly eat fried foods anymore, and I generally try to avoid snacks. But after dinner on days when I’ve worked especially hard, I reward myself with a Häagen-Dazs ice cream. That’s a separate stomach! (laughs)”

The time he spends preparing before practice—something he says was basically zero when I was younger—has gradually increased with age, eventually becoming one or two hours.

“Yeah, it’s tough. My body used to move automatically without me having to do anything, but little by little it’s stopped listening to me. So I’ve increased training focused on explosiveness and work hard so that my body can still move during games.

Everyone around me on the team is younger than me, and when I go home, my three children just keep growing bigger. Honestly, I really feel like I’ve become an old guy now. (laughs)”

Even so, Yanagita continues to hit the ball farther than anyone else during batting practice before games. On the day the writer visited for the interview, he drove line drives to the opposite field that left younger players stunned. Yet Yanagita himself laughed it off:

“Seriously, it’s really nothing special. The hits are garbage!”

After 15 years since securing a regular starting position in Fukuoka, the Hawks’ slugger has accumulated more than 1,600 hits and over 270 home runs, yet he remains remarkably humble.

“But when I was a rookie, I underestimated professional baseball. The person who changed that mindset for me was Kurano-san.”

Yanagita joined the SoftBank Hawks in 2011 as the second overall draft pick. After appearing in only six first-team games during his rookie season, he went to Puerto Rico for two months of winter league training during the offseason. Accompanying him was Shinji Kurano (51), then the Hawks’ first-team pitching chief coach and head coordinator. By sharing daily life with Kurano, Yanagita says he learned how to survive in professional baseball.

“Apparently, Kurano-san asked me, ‘What kind of baseball player do you want to become?’ and I answered something ridiculous like, ‘I’m not really sure, but maybe I’ll become a regular player after a few years?’ (laughs) I wrote the baseball notebook I submitted every day with that same kind of attitude.

But then Kurano-san scolded me, saying, ‘Are you taking this seriously? Don’t rely on excuses!’ He taught me so much about the importance of practice and how a professional baseball player should think and carry himself. Even now, I sometimes talk with Kurano-san about those days. Every time, I think, ‘I can’t believe I actually said things like that,’ I can hardly believe it was me.”

Gita’s “When to Call It a Career”

After being awakened by his mentor’s harsh criticism, Yuki Yanagita enjoyed a glorious 20s, achieving a triple three (30 home runs, 30 stolen bases, and a .300 batting average) in 2015 and leading the team to a league championship and Japan Series title. However, his 30s have been plagued by injuries. In 2019, he was sidelined with a left hamstring injury; in 2022, with inflammation of the left rotator cuff; and in 2024, with an injury to his right hamstring. Last year, he suffered a bone bruise in his right tibia and appeared in only 20 games, the fewest of his professional career excluding his rookie season. Even Yanagita, once known as the “Superhuman of the Hawks,” admits candidly, “Things have been tough since I signed the seven-year contract.”

“Simply put, I started thinking, ‘Am I really going to devote all this remaining time to baseball?’ And honestly, it was difficult. Because of that, injuries started to affect me mentally as well. On top of that, my recovery is slower than it was in my 20s. As the time I spent unable to play increased, I found myself thinking more often, ‘Maybe I’m reaching my limit soon.’

But now I’m able to play baseball like this again. So I’ve stopped dwelling on it and started thinking that perhaps everything I’ve experienced was something I needed to go through.

My body may have moved better when I was younger, but now I’ve gained knowledge about practice, training, nutrition, and sleep, and I’m able to put that knowledge into action. I think the current version of myself might actually be a better baseball player.”

Yanagita will turn 38 this October. As of the end of interleague play this season, he has posted a respectable .249 batting average with eight home runs and 26 RBIs, but how does the superstar approaching the age of 40 think about the end of his career?

“As a professional baseball player, I’m still not complete yet. So as long as the team needs me, I want to keep playing, and I want to continue getting better and better. Whether I retire while I still have something left in the tank, or whether I play until I’m completely worn out — either way is fine. Until that time comes, I want to keep earning money. I have a family and horses to support, after all (laughs).”

A passionate horse racing fan, Yanagita also has a side as a racehorse owner and currently owns five horses. In February last year, one of his horses, “God Valley,” earned its first victory at Kokura Racecourse.

“There are always people above you. There are incredible people like Susumu Fujita (53) of CyberAgent and Masato Kaneko (81), who is famous as an owner of top-class racehorses. I’m nowhere near their level. That’s why I have to work hard at baseball. My salary went down last year, but I’m thinking, ‘I’ll earn enough to buy good horses!’”

The presence of fellow members of the “1988 generation,” such as Hayato Sakamoto (37), Masahiro Tanaka (37), and Kenta Maeda (38), also motivates Yanagita.

“I want to prove to my teammates and my fans that I can still play at this age. I think the fun of baseball is being able to continue even when your body is worn down and you’re no longer at your peak. I think the players of my generation and those who entered the league at the same time feel the same way. Otherwise, people normally wouldn’t try to keep playing baseball until this age.

Although, I only recently started to discover that kind of enjoyment (laughs).”

Still eager to continue playing, Gita spoke at the end of the interview about his ideal life after retirement, as if he had just remembered.

“Things I want to do maybe provide commentary for boat racing. I’d also like to host horse racing events. I want to climb Mount Fuji, and snowboarding or skiing would be great too. I used to ski when I was younger, but considering the risk of injury, I have to hold back while I’m still an active player. I want to go skiing again at Geihoku Highlands in my hometown of Hiroshima, like I used to.”

The ambitions of a truly elite athlete are endless.

“I think the current version of myself might actually be a better baseball player.”

From the July 10, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY”