MLB Celebrates The League’s Japanese Stars With 12 Custom Manhole Covers Across Japan

Major League Baseball will celebrate the league’s 12 active Japanese players through custom manholes that will feature one player in each design, to be installed at locations associated with that player’s roots in baseball, starting Monday, June 16^th. Each of the 12 manholes were designed by different artists, crafted to tell the unique stories of the player's path to Major League Baseball, while capturing their unique style and characteristics, both as players and individuals.

The manholes will feature content exclusive to those that experience the excitement on-site, through short AR movies that can be viewed on mobile devices by scanning the manholes.

In addition, MLB and Japan Airlines (JAL) will collaborate for a special project that will further enrich the manhole experience for those that visit one of the manholes in-person. Details of this project will be announced together with the launch of the first manhole on June 16^th.

Installations of manholes will launch on Monday, June 16^th starting with three in Iwate Prefecture: Shohei Ohtani (Oshu), Yusei Kikuchi (Morioka) and Roki Sasaki (Rikuzentakata). Launch venues will be unveiled gradually through MLB’s Japanese Instagram account @mlbjapan.

Installation Schedule

• June 16 – Shohei Ohtani: Oshu City, Iwate Prefecture
• June 16 – Yusei Kikuchi: Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture
• June 16 – Roki Sasaki: Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture
• June 17 – Yu Darvish: Habikino City, Osaka Prefecture
• June 18 – Yuki Matsui: Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture
• June 19 – Shota Imanaga: Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture
• June 23 – Lars Nootbaar: Higashimatsuyama City, Saitama Prefecture
• June 24 – Seiya Suzuki: Arakawa Ward, Tokyo
• June 25 – Yoshinobu Yamamoto: Bizen City, Okayama Prefecture
• June 26 – Masataka Yoshida: Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture
• June 27 – Kodai Senga: Gamagori City, Aichi Prefecture
• June 29 – Tomoyuki Sugano: Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture

Together with the manhole designs, a “making-of” promotional video featuring the manufacturing and design processes has been launched. Watch the video here.

About the project

MLB is celebrating the growing success of Japanese stars across the league, as heroes of their home country and hometowns. In honoring the 12 current players, the campaign highlights the inspirational stories of each player through a one-of-a-kind platform in manholes, a culture that Japan has uniquely cultivated over the years. MLB worked closely with each hometown to trace their heroic journeys to the global stage of Major League Baseball.