Hiroshima: Former Pro Baseball Pitcher Turned to Lemon Farmer, Looks to First Harvest in 2026

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:16 JST, January 24, 2026&

HIGASHI-HIROSHIMA, Hiroshima — A former professional baseball player has become a lemon farmer in the city of Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, and is now entering his first harvest year.

Takaya Toda, 32, played as a pitcher for the Hiroshima Carp, contributing to their three consecutive Central League championships from 2016 to 2018. However, he subsequently struggled with injuries and retired in 2022. He is originally from Kobe, but he did not return to his hometown.

“In Hiroshima, I was helped by many people, including my fans,” Toda said. “If I was going to start over, Hiroshima was the only place I could think of.”

Shortly after retiring, he was invited by his acquaintance who was a lemon farmer and decided to transition into farming. He chose farmland on a hill overlooking the vast Seto Inland Sea and planted 40 saplings in 2023.

For Toda, lemon cultivation has been a daily process of trial and error. Even with his baseball-trained body, he said, “just one or two hours of weeding under the scorching midsummer sun left me dizzy.”

Still, whenever he faced difficulties, local residents offered him advice. Wanting to repay the community, he has actively accepted media interviews, including TV appearances, leveraging his former professional baseball career. His goal has been to encourage as many people as possible to visit the area.

“These lemons are full of the passion of starting from scratch,” Toda said of his first harvest, expected in October. “I want to deliver them to people who have been waiting.”