{"id":210283,"date":"2026-03-08T11:16:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T11:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/210283\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T11:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T11:16:28","slug":"is-dodgers-andrew-friedman-a-global-business-icon-in-japan-he-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/210283\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Dodgers\u2019 Andrew Friedman a global business icon? In Japan, he is"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The man who managed Shohei Ohtani<\/a> in Japan dropped by the Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 training camp the other day, camera crew in tow. He was there to interview Andrew Friedman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Friedman, quite naturally, assumed the questions would be about Ohtani.<\/p>\n

Not at all. The questions were about Friedman, and what he had in common with the people who lead companies that make bullet trains and electron microscopes and Hello Kitty.<\/p>\n

Hideki Kuriyama managed Ohtani on the Nippon Ham Fighters, the team that nurtured Ohtani\u2019s ambition of pitching and hitting<\/a> at an elite level. Today, in addition to serving as the Fighters\u2019 chief baseball officer \u2014 the equivalent of Friedman\u2019s role as the Dodgers\u2019 president of baseball operations \u2014 Kuriyama hosts a prime-time television show<\/a> in which he interviews the top executives of global corporations based in Japan.<\/p>\n

These companies are household names in Japan, and often in the United States: Hitachi. Suzuki. Japan Airlines. Nippon Steel. Rakuten, the e-commerce giant. Sanrio, the Hello Kitty people.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are a household name in Japan.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are the brand. Nippon Ham is a brand too, but that brand is a food processing company.<\/p>\n

Remember when Fox owned the Dodgers<\/a> and Disney owned the Angels<\/a>? That is baseball in Japan: teams owned by companies that can be more interested in their core business of financial services or transportation or media or whatever than in their team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Japanese baseball market is stuck,\u201d Kuriyama told me through interpreter Chinami Inaishi. \u201cOwnership belongs to the owner-corporations. They really see the teams as part of their branding and marketing. Their efforts to focus on the team strength seems very different than that of Major League Baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, really, was what Kuriyama wanted to talk about with Friedman: What could Japanese teams learn from how Friedman leads?<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that we talked about was patience,\u201d Kuriyama said, \u201cthe ability to wait. I felt that. A lot of people have said that about him, so I\u2019ll take that to heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 Shohei Ohtani, left, is congratulated by team president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman after the Dodgers clinched the National League pennant last October.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Beyond that? Friedman talked about integrating the work of different departments, no matter how unrelated those departments might appear from the outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I learned is that an organization is not just the sum of people,\u201d Kuriyama said. \u201cTo have a really good organization, everyone has to be united in what they want, and each person has to contribute. It\u2019s kind of like multiplication rather than addition.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Friedman, championship math is about more than wins and losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent time talking about the quest we are on to create a destination spot,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, the primary goal is to win championships. But that\u2019s an outcome. We believe the process part of increasing your chances of getting there is by creating a destination spot where your really good players don\u2019t want to leave, and where players on other teams are longingly looking at, like, \u2018Oh man, I want to play for them.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are way better at it today than we were five years ago, but it is like a living organism that we have to continue to nurture. It is not something where we will ever take our foot off the gas and say, \u2018OK, we\u2019ve got it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Nothing beats winning \u2014 or, for the cynical<\/a>, high salaries. But, when the Dodgers go beyond the scoreboard and payroll to provide innovative biomechanical and nutritional analysis to their players; expand the home clubhouse twice in barely a decade and take special care of player families; and add a second chartered team flight so the players can take their own plane<\/a>, players take notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on a quest to get better at everything we do,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cIf you listen to some of our internal meetings, and you listen to us challenge each other to get better in different areas, you would think we finished in last place last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take a very critical look at what we\u2019re doing and what things we do better and what things we are not doing as well, and how to enhance those parts of our operation. That is our mindset: figuring out a way to continuously get better at everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuriyama brought up an interview Friedman did three years ago, after Friedman visited Japan and marveled at how many fans gathered to watch Team Japan workouts in advance of the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also struck me how many different team hats were there,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cYou\u2019d see a Dodgers, and a Cubs, and a Yankees, and a Red Sox. You saw a smattering of different teams. And that\u2019s what got us thinking like, \u2018Man, if we could actually convert more fans here into loving Dodger baseball, the benefits that come with that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the ensuing 20 months, the Dodgers signed Ohtani. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki have followed, as have back-to-back World Series championships and a burgeoning Japanese fan club<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are, absolutely, bar none, the most popular team,\u201d Kuriyama said.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are the favorite MLB team of 59% of Japanese sports fans, according to a YouGov poll released this week. The New York Yankees rank second at 14%; no other team polled at even 10%.<\/p>\n

According to the poll, 78% say Ohtani is one of their favorite MLB players, 79% say Ohtani has increased their interest in MLB since he signed with the Dodgers, and 87% say they have a positive impression of him.<\/p>\n

Ohtani made an estimated $100 million last year in sponsorships and endorsements<\/a>, including the promotion of a skin care product that the 64-year-old Kuriyama said he has tried. I asked Kuriyama how far he could walk in Japan without seeing an advertisement for Ohtani.<\/p>\n

\u201cLess than 10 steps,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kuriyama held firm that Ohtani could prosper as both a pitcher and hitter at a time that opinion was far from universal. Now that Ohtani is the game\u2019s best player, and an international superstar that transcends sports, Kuriyama must feel like a proud father.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was incredibly talented,\u201d Kuriyama said. \u201cSo, rather than being a proud dad, I feel like, \u2018Thank you for not injuring yourself, and thank you for putting the work and effort into being where you are today.\u2019 I am actually a little relieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked Kuriyama if there was anything Ohtani could do that he has not already done.<\/p>\n

For one, Kuriyama said, the Cy Young Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s actually more talented than people think he is,\u201d Kuriyama said. \u201cI firmly believe that he is going to surprise many of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He only \u2014 and, yes, Kuriyama used the word \u201conly\u201d \u2014 hit 55 home runs last season. Does Kuriyama believe Ohtani could reach the single-season MLB record of 73?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d Kuriyama said.<\/p>\n

If Ohtani does that this year, the Dodgers might well become the first team in National League history to win three consecutive World Series championships. If the Dodgers do that, flooded with cash from Japan and all over the world, the interview Friedman does next spring might be with the Harvard Business School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The man who managed Shohei Ohtani in Japan dropped by the Dodgers\u2019 training camp the other day, camera…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[10558,38609,23417,1804,426,25036,96780,6763,96779,48,52,51,47,50,49,1459,592,422,427,4610,72],"class_list":["post-210283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-andrew-friedman","tag-baseball-operation","tag-brand","tag-company","tag-dodgers","tag-good-player","tag-hello-kitty","tag-japan","tag-kuriyama","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-part","tag-people","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-team","tag-thing","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}