Japanese icon and Dodgers' superstar Shohei Ohtani provided a memorable moment Tuesday for thousands of baseball fans who were packed inside the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Los Angeles opened the 2025 season with a 4-1 win against the Chicago Cubs. LA Times Dodgers beat writer Jack Harris joined "LA Times Today" host Lisa McRee from Tokyo with an up-close look at how the Dodgers are painting the town blue.

Harris explained that the Dodgers' push in Japan began when they signed Shohei Ohtani in 2023 as other Japanese stars were emerging.

"They saw an opportunity not just to improve the team right now, but also become the most popular MLB team in Japan, a place where there's a lot of baseball interest, a lot of baseball fans, a lot of MLB fans. But there hasn't been one team that dominated the market over here in that kind of way. So when they looked at it, they said, we want to get these three players not just to help us win now, but we want to do it so that in the future, when future generations of Japanese players are coming out, they grew up watching the Dodgers on TV here," Harris said. 

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was born in Japan, and Harris said this week has been a sort of homecoming for him. 

"Managing this team, seeing the Japanese culture in a lot of little ways, more immersed in his life around the Dodgers, but also recognizing just how popular the team is in Japan and the kind of impact they're having on people in Japan. It's giving him a way to kind of reconnect with those roots, too, and has made this trip for him have some added sentimental meaning, coming back to the to the country where he was born," Harris said.

The trip to Japan was also a shrewd business idea, as Harris pointed out, as the Dodgers try to attract more fans and potential players worldwide.

"It's been another tangent to benefit to the Dodgers of this whole experience, which is having the opportunity to build their brand in Japan, to make marketing inroads in Japan, to capitalize on business opportunities," said Harris. "And now there's a fan component too. This week they're watching this Japanese Dodger fan club that people are paying to be a part of. And then even just at a grassroots level, you're seeing people around the ballpark again, buying Dodger hats, buying Dodger jerseys, showing up at the games as Dodger fans and all of that. When you put it together in a pod, is has really enhanced what was already a very profitable business model for the Dodgers."

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