Will the Dodgers Play in Japan in 2025?
With the Dodgers and San Diego Padres touching down in Seoul, South Korea to begin the 2024 regular season, many have wondered whether the Dodgers’ high-profile Japanese stars — Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto — will prompt MLB to bring the Dodgers back to Asia for future regular season games.
The answer seems to be more a question of “when” than “if.”
Citing “people familiar with the thinking” of Dodgers team officials, the Los Angeles Times reported the Dodgers are being considered for a series of games at the Tokyo Dome next year. Exhibition games against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, Shohei Ohtani’s former team, could also be in the works. Notes columnist Dylan Hernandez:
Theoretically, the Dodgers could visit the Fighters at Es Con Field for those games, which would mark Ohtani’s return to Hokkaido.
— via the Los Angeles Times
The Dodgers touched down in Seoul to a rockstar-like welcome Thursday. Their reception in Tokyo would theoretically be even more popular. From a marketing perspective, MLB would be foolish not to invite the Dodgers to Ohtani and Yamamoto’s native country.
In an interview with the Orange County Register, Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten tamped the brakes on a 2025 series in Japan. Writes Bill Plunkett:
Earlier this year, Sadayuki Sakakibara, the commissioner of NPB (Japan’s professional league) reportedly confirmed that the league is already in discussions with MLB about bringing a series to Tokyo in 2025. There is also speculation about games at the new stadium in Sapporo, home to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
“We do not know that,” Kasten said when asked if the Dodgers would be going to Japan next year. “I don’t have any expectations of that.”
— via the Orange County Register
Plunkett notes that Kasten was made aware of the Seoul Series about two years in advance, so the time to work out logistics in Tokyo or Hokkaido is now. While a 2025 series might be premature, the Dodgers’ visit to Japan might not have to wait much longer.
Photo Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
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Please make sure Dodger fans from the United States are allowed at the baseball games in Japan and let us know. I’m in S. Korea with my family. Bought our flight tickets since October to find out late January of this year, that only Koreans were allowed to the game. That’s not fair. If I would’ve know, we wouldn’t have come to S. Korea. I’m very disappointed.