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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
Ohgi!
Ohgi!
Ohgi!
Forget the old names. The new guru of Japanese management is a sweet-talking, hard-drinking baseball
coach named Ohgi Akira
By Murakami Mutsuko KobeSCHOOLS WERE EMPTIED, THE banks closed, city hall was shut down and practically every road on Miyako Island appeared deserted on the afternoon of Jan. 31 -- with one glaring exception. In the center of Hirara town, 10,000 residents -- one out of every five islanders -- poured onto the main street to cheer a band of modern-day conquerors. The Orix Blue Wave, who became Japan’s top baseball team last year, had just arrived on the little island near southern Okinawa to begin their annual spring-training camp. At the head of a procession of open cars, all eyes were on the man who was probably the least likely of the team’s stars: heavy-drinking, 61-year-old manager Ohgi Akira.
“We had been detecting warm waves of love emanating from this island,” Ohgi gushed to the crowd at the end of the parade. The people swooned, particularly Sunagawa Yoshikazu. “Mr. Ohgi is like an honorary citizen of Miyako Island,” the president of a local liquor company said. Sunagawa had personal reasons to be excited: he had successfully wooed Ohgi to endorse his Ryukyu Kingdom rice brandy. Sunagawa plans to have Ohgi’s smiling face on posters across southern Japan by March.
