Shohei Ohtani Voted as Japan’s Favorite Athlete; Volleyball Player Yuki Ishikawa Ranked 2nd, Boxer Naoya Inoue 3rd

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:41 JST, November 22, 2024

Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers is by far the favorite athlete among the Japanese people, according to a survey by the Sasakawa Sports Foundation.

The foundation released the results of a nationwide survey of people aged 18 and over on their favorite athlete on Thursday, and Ohtani came in first with 41.5% of the votes, the highest percentage ever.

The survey is conducted every two years, and was conducted from June to July this year with responses from 2,284 people.

The percentage of votes Ohtani received this year was significantly higher than in 2022, when he ranked first for the first time with 29.1%.

Yuki Ishikawa, a member of the national men’s volleyball team, came in second with 3.6%, and boxer Naoya Inoue, the world super-bantamweight champion, came in third with 2.1%. In the previous survey, Ishikawa was sixth and Inoue was fourth.