One thing I’ve learned about the Japanese is, they love it when one of their number attains international fame. From directors like Akira Kurosawa to writers like Yukio Mishima and Haruki Murakami to manga and anime greats like Shirow Masamune and Katsuhiro Otomo, becoming popular on the International stage creates adoring fans at home, too. The Japanese love to see their sports stars make it big overseas, too, and fawn over them on sports news programs every night when they do. The latest Japanese baseball player to make the move to the U.S. major leagues is Yu Darvish, former star pitcher of the Nippon Ham Fighters, now playing for the Texas Rangers. Darvish is interesting for several reasons, including that he’s not a pure Japanese, but is half Iranian, an interesting representative of a new, less homogenized Japan for the 21st century. We hope Darvish-kun does well.
Yu Darvish has made the jump to the Big Leagues.
