On the 13th, Ohtani shared a photo of a finger heart pose and attached the national flag on Instagram. Ohtani expressed his affection to Korean fans ahead of his visit to Korea on the 15th to play in the opening game of the U.S. Major League Baseball between the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul for two days from the 20th.
Ohtani's post, which attached the national flag, has received a lot of attention not only from domestic baseball fans but also from Japanese netizens, leading to a flurry of controversy.
In particular, 5 channels (5ch), an anonymous community known as a representative far-right and hateful site in Japan, were followed by opinions that criticized Ohtani's post.
Along with the claim that Ohtani is an ethnic Korean in Japan, posts sarcastically criticizing him such as "Finally Ohtani revealed his identity," "I thought he might be Korean for his different physique and humility than Japanese," "Ohtani finally released his shackles on his mind," "The pride of Korean-Japanese residents" and "Otani was taken away by Korea."
One Japanese netizen said, "Otani has the same physique as Choi Hong-man. He still has the same image as a Korean in the past." Another Japanese netizen commented on Ohtani's hand heart, saying, "Taegukgi and the gesture of counting money is to see Korea as money."
"Koreans are truly miserable. The popularity of Ohtani in Japan is a little bit too high, but he is more popular in Korea than Korean players in the opening game of the Major Leaguers' improvement," he said. "He is the top player in terms of product sales, more than 10 times that of Korean players."
More than hundreds of posts calling and criticizing Ohtani as a Korean-Japanese have been written, proving the high interest of Japanese netizens.
On the other hand, Korean baseball fans are also saying they are surprised. They seem to welcome Ohtani's recent post with opinions that "Son Heung-min actually posted a Japanese flag."
Ohtani, who signed a 10-year, 700 million-dollar contract, will land in Korea for the first time in 12 years. However, he will not be able to see Ohtani pitch. He underwent elbow ligament joint surgery in September last year and will play only as a batter this season.
Ohtani had three hits and two RBIs in four at-bats, including a home run, in an exhibition game against San Francisco at Camel Mac Ranch Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on the 13th.
BY: 토토사이트 모음
