Japanese people are just inherently insular. Ohtani by comparison is more visible just by going to Laker and Rams games with his wifey, but otherwise he's a closed off dude who just hangs out his with dog. When Matsui was here he loved it because he could be generally anonymous here whereas in Japan he's a legend. When's the last time u seen a loud Japanese dude? Unless u doing slippery steps competitions, they're super silent.
I was listening to a pod in December that featured Vlad Jr and he was talkin cash shyt. Basically sayin, "all due respect to my boy Soto but nobody in this league is fukkin with me" type shyt and that woulda made for crazy headlines here if he said it in English. Junior Caminero, one of the best young prospects in baseball, hit that HR in DR that won them the title, doesn't know a lick of English.
