The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© 2024 AFPOhtani's disgraced ex-interpreter cut from school textbook
TOKYO©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© 2024 AFP
21 Comments
Login to comment
stormcrow
He had everything yet he threw it all away.
A famous friendship, personal fame (now infamy), a very good salary (presumably) and a happy marriage. What a waste!
Fighto!
Why this shady nobody was ever in a textbook - let alone admired - is bizarre.
"People who support success"?! Attaching oneself to the rich and famous as they rise up, to desperately and feed off their scraps, is not exactly "supporting success"!
Samit Basu
How can being Ohtani's personal translator earn enough importance and respect to be on textbook? I don't get it.
Marc Lowe
Removing him is hardly revisionist. The book is about people support success. It is not about people who embezzle from successful people. Since media outlets around the world have made him a household name,, he need not appear in a book featuring obscure unknown supporters of success like a chef for a football club. One day, I hope to be in this book.
stickman1760
Mizuhara was elevated to virtual celebrity status largely by the Japanese media for the simple fact that he could speak fluent English. Sugoii desune.
ThonTaddeo
How is the football team chef related to English? I can see why, in an English textbook, they'd celebrate a Japanese-English bilingual person who has found success in the English-speaking country he immigrated to. Why is this Japanese chef in an English textbook?
Fighto!
Chef?
Fighto!
Ah, sorry - Yoshiteru Nishi.
Seigi
Do not dare to put anyone on children's textbooks while that person is still alive.
Japantime
This is great news as we only want honest people taught to young children. We do not want people who embezzle millions from us.
Laguna
Mizuhara didn't immigrate. He grew up and was educated in Diamond Bar, California. Poor choice for the textbook.
ThonTaddeo
@Laguna - As far as I know, his family emigrated from Japan to California when he was young. He's still Japanese despite having lived most of his life in the US. I'd be more impressed with the book if he were born in the US and was an American of Japanese descent, as the image I'm getting from it is that it wants to celebrate Japanese people through the medium of the English language.
BeerDeliveryGuy
He was being paid upwards of $1mill from the Angels, and presumably the same or competitive offer from the Dodgers.
He was included an English textbook in a section called “people who support success.”
If you’d have read the article you’d know what to properly hate on.
Abbey
Behind the counter, Macdonalds, Roppongi from now.
He can use his English skills there.
thelonius
They should keep him in there and make the lesson about the dangers of not speaking English.
I'm sure Ohtani is thinking he should have paid more attention in his English classes.
opheliajadefeldt
How the hell did an interpreter have any access to that money, I cannot figure this out? He is not an accountant, auditor, or what ever, just an interpreter. One must wonder at Shohei Ohtani's grasp of real life reality, but maybe, he was so over paid he did not notice a little bit of loose change going missing.
BeerDeliveryGuy
In Japan it is common for the husband to literally handover all his bank cards, credit cards, etc to the wife; who gives him a cash allowance.
When Ohtani played in Japan, his mother handled all his finances, and he often said he has no idea how much money he has.
When he moved to California, he said he fully entrusted Mr Mizuhara with all aspects of his money management. Mizuhara has also admitted to possessing the access PINs to Ohtani’s accounts, and impersonating Ohtani in phone calls and emails.
BeerDeliveryGuy
It’s actually quite common for celebrities, especially those who are bad at money management to entrust their finances entirely to an agency or manager.
A friend of mine is an LA based, semi-celebrity comedian. He has absolutely no idea how much money he has and wants to keep it that way, especially after almost going bankrupt due to poor financial and lifestyle choices and drug addiction.
Now he literally just asks his agent, “do I have enough money?” To which the agent just answers, “at this rate, enough.”
Chico3
Big deal! There's always going to be some baises and censorships in textbooks (or other materials). If students really want to study more on a certain topic, they can research it on their own. Nowadays, there are many resources to search information, especially on the Internet.
Kabukilover
Mizuhara had an addiction. It was to wealth. It included gambling, This was his downfall. He from his addiction as one might become addicted smoking and alcohol. Mizuhara is a sick. man, who can recover.