MLB Kicks Off Project Honoring Japanese Stars with Manhole Covers; Ohtani, Kikuchi, Sasaki First 3 to Have Designs Unveiled in Hometown

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:16 JST, June 19, 2025

MORIOKA — Major League Baseball has launched a unique tribute to Shohei Ohtani and other Japanese stars with custom-designed manhole covers placed in locations associated with them.

The MLB announced Monday it had begun the project to install the manhole covers for 12 players currently active in the majors.

On the first day, the manhole covers for three players from Iwate Prefecture were unveiled in their hometowns, with celebrations attended by local officials and residents.

Shohei Ohtani, the 30-year-old star of the Los Angeles Dodgers, was the first to have a manhole cover created. Installed at the west exit of JR Mizusawa Esashi Station in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, the manhole cover features illustrations of his “two-way” pitching and batting. It also features words such as “luck” and “humanity,” reportedly drawn from his high school goal achievement sheet.

Leveraging AR (augmented reality) technology, viewers can access a short video when holding a smartphone over the manhole cover.

Oshu Mayor Jun Kuranari greeted attendees at the unveiling ceremony, saying, “It’s an honor that Oshu was chosen to kick off this nationwide unveiling.”

Attending the ceremony in a Dodgers uniform, Hiromitsu Kikuchi, a 56-year-old self-employed Oshu resident, smiled as he expressed his satisfaction, saying, “I’m very happy to have witnessed this unveiling.”

Meanwhile, a manhole cover honoring Los Angeles Angels pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, 34, was installed on the sidewalk in front of the Tonan Library in Morioka, a place he frequented as a student.

The design incorporates books, reflecting his passion for reading. It also prominently displays a burning flame set against the Nambu Japanese red pine, the prefectural tree, signifying his “quietly burning fighting spirit.”

Morioka Mayor Shigeru Uchidate expressed his hopes at the ceremony, saying, “I hope this manhole [cover] will boost enthusiasm for baseball and draw many visitors from outside the prefecture.”

Children from Kikuchi’s alma mater, Morioka Municipal Mirumae Elementary School, brought gloves donated by him to celebrate.

“The design is cool. Kikuchi is also good at fielding and he’s someone I look up to,” said a sixth-grader.

A manhole cover featuring Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki, 23, was unveiled in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture.

The design also features an illustration of a pine tree, which is thought to be a motif of the Takata Matsubara pine grove. The grove was a scenic and significant landmark that was tragically lost in the March 2011 tsunami following the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The nearby Rikuzentakata City Tourism and Products Association offers a sticker with the manhole cover’s design to visitors who show a picture they took of the cover.

The manhole cover was installed on a 10-meter elevated platform, which was raised after the 2011 earthquake. A park once stood nearby where Sasaki in his youth used to play catch with his father, who tragically lost his life in the disaster at the age of 37.

Tomoyuki Murakami, a 55-year-old city official, coached Sasaki in a sports club when he was in the third grade of elementary school. He said: “This place before the elevation represents Roki’s origin. I want people to see the manhole and think, ‘He played baseball in a place like this.’”