- Shohei Ohtani is a baseball star in the MLB
- He was born in Japan to parents Toru and Kayoko Ohtani
- Ohtani's father and mother are former athletes
It seems Shohei Ohtani was destined to be an athlete. The Japanese baseball star comes from a family history of sports talent in his parents Toru and Kayoko Ohtani.
These are Shohei Ohtani's parents Toru and Kayoko
Shohei Ohtani was born in 1994 in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, to Toru Ohtani and his wife Kayoko Ohtani. Though their son Shohei became a pro baseball star, the Ohtani parents spent their days as amateur athletes in Japan.
According to the LA Times, Toru Ohtani was a baseball outfielder in the Japanese Industrial League, and he coached his son Shohei in his childhood baseball days. Ohtani's father worked at an automobile plant to support the family.
For her part, Shohei Ohtani's mother Kayoko was a competitive high school badminton player at the national level. She later played on nonprofessional teams as well.
Shohei Ohtani also has a brother and sister
Toru (born 1962) and Kayoko (born 1963) are parents of three, with Shohei Ohtani being the youngest. He has older siblings named Ryuta Ohtani and Yuka Ohtani.
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A fearsome home run hitter and starting pitcher, Shohei Ohtani has quickly become a baseball star like no other, first in Japan and now with the MLB's Los Angeles Angels.
But despite his son's one-of-a-kind talent, Ohtani's father Toru once said he had a "very ordinary, really just ordinary" upbringing in Japan.
Toru explained to The Mainichi that "kindness" was the key virtue for young Shohei, and the likeable baseball star clearly took it to heart.
