Over the past few months, Don Tahara has given away nearly 100 bottles of sake to celebrate Shohei Ohtani’s late-season heroics with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
At Fur Bar, the gastropub in Little Tokyo that Tahara opened 18 years ago, every patron gets a home shot every time Ohtani hits a home run. Tahara said the “Shohei Sake Shot” special was not a cheap expense, but it was well worth the expense for a lifelong Dodgers fan.
Seeing Ohtani at the Fur Bar has become a family event, especially when the Dodgers are playing at home. According to Tahara, women and elderly people who had rarely visited bars in the past are now going out in droves wearing Otani jerseys. Tahara said eager fans will first have a pregame meal at the bar, then take an Uber to the stadium, then return to the bar for cocktails after the game.
“We’ve become the national place to watch Dodgers games,” Tahara said, predicting a 30 to 40 percent jump in game-day business. “People who wouldn’t normally come to watch sports are now coming for Shohei.”
Otani mania has turned Little Tokyo into the unofficial “Dodgertown” as the Dodgers take on the New York Yankees in the 2024 World Series. Many business owners, already veteran Dodgers fans, quickly created special Ohtani-themed menus to support their hometown hero. A towering mural of interactive stars adorning the Miyako Hotel has become a top tourist attraction, drawing in droves of new shoppers and diners to revitalize the historic enclave amid growing threats of gentrification and displacement. It’s drawing me closer.
In Japantown, the second-oldest city in the country, the impact of Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers was enormous. Adam Burke, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism Authority, said the number of Japanese tourists visiting Los Angeles this year will exceed 400,000, and total visitor numbers could nearly double from 2023. He said that there is a sex. The general manager of Miyako Hotel said that 98% of guests use the game. I spent many days observing Otani.
A couple of ducks under an umbrella during the rain in the Little Tokyo area of downtown Los Angeles on January 22, 2024. Photo: Allen J Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Mariko Lochridge, small business coordinator for the nonprofit organization Little Tokyo Service Center, said love for Otani is clearly driving up tourism from Japan, but he’s concerned about the growing profile of Japanese language and pop culture in the United States. He said it was a more lasting impact.
“Since our identity is tied to Japan, the long-term impact of Otani fever is on the ‘cool factor’ of Little Tokyo,” Lochridge said. “It gives us hope that people will find this area and fall in love with it.”
Along the four streets that make up historic Little Tokyo, bars and dessert shops turn food into Otani goods. Fugetsudo, a long-established confectionery store that has been making mochi for 121 years, has released “Shomochi,” a dodger blue package filled with white chocolate and ganache. Okayama Kobo, a bakery inside Miyako Hotel, sells baked goods shaped like Dodgers helmets.
Tahara and other business owners credit local artist Robert Vargas, who painted the Ohtani mural, with bringing Little Tokyo into the spotlight. “This mural is the best thing that’s happened to Little Tokyo in a while,” Tahara said, noting that many Japanese tourists stood in front of Fur Bar and took pictures with the mural. Some people visit bars afterwards.
The mural looms over Bunkado, a family-run gift shop that opened in 1946. Natsuki Quartz, who runs Nostalgiana, a craft pop-up stand that sells traditional Japanese products such as teacup candles and vintage kimono coasters, said she saw few Japanese customers. Please come to the store until Ohtani joins the Dodgers. She estimated that since the mural was unveiled in March, the total number of visitors to the gift shop has more than doubled from the previous year, often reaching more than 500 people on busy days.
“Mr. Otani has certainly brought about a great change in Little Tokyo,” Quartz said, speaking to Otani in honorific Japanese. “More and more people want to experience Japanese culture, not just go to restaurants.”
At Mr. Ramen, the last family-owned ramen shop on First Street, Otani mania has led to an avalanche of sales from new customers looking to experience Japanese food, said co-owner Ryusei Yamamoto. said.
Shohei Ohtani during Game 6 of the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Dodger Stadium. Photo: Jason Parkhurst/Imagn Images/USA Today Sports
“There’s a huge influx of people interested in the Japanese community,” said Yamamoto, 36. “I’ve heard that people who speak Japanese and know Japanese culture and history are coming back to Little Tokyo. ” he said.
Like Far Bar, Mr. Ramen is capitalizing on Otani’s star power by offering 50% off the first 17 bowls of ramen the day after he hits a home run. Yamamoto said most of the restaurant’s regular customers are Los Angeles residents, but thanks to Otani, the number of Japanese and out-of-state tourists has increased sharply.
The revival comes after one of the most difficult periods in the restaurant’s history. Mr. Yamamoto’s father, who founded Mr. Ramen in 1993, suddenly passed away in 2020, and Mr. Yamamoto and his two younger brothers were forced to make the difficult choice of selling the business or taking over the business. The three sons wanted to pursue careers in music and acting, but decided to honor their parents’ legacy by rebuilding the restaurant.
“How disrespectful would it be to our parents if we sold it for the low price people offered during the coronavirus pandemic,” Yamamoto said.
Mr. Yamamoto said Little Tokyo is experiencing a resurgence and hopes it will continue. But development pressures remain a serious existential threat to the family-run establishment in Little Tokyo, which celebrated its 140th anniversary this summer. Longtime residents and business owners continue to be priced out as big-budget developments, including a new rail line and a $2 billion mixed-use project, are greenlit. In May, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Little Tokyo one of the 11 most endangered historic sites in the country.
Kristin Fukushima, managing director of the Little Tokyo Community Council, said more than half of Little Tokyo’s traditional businesses, businesses that have been in operation for more than 10 years, have closed or moved to nearby locations in the past 15 years. He said he had withdrawn from the
“Rents are still going up,” Fukushima said. “While a small number of companies are able to benefit from this moment, it cannot completely alleviate the problems we have.”
As an avid Dodgers fan, Fukushima said he’s excited about the World Series, but worried about the impending changes to Little Tokyo. She said she has already noticed rising parking prices and worries it will deter local residents from visiting the neighborhood.
Fukushima said tourism brought in by sporting events and powerful countries can be a good thing, as long as the investment is directed toward local communities. She said this is a conversation that needs to continue leading up to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“We want to make sure that if we have people here, they’re going to go to our traditional businesses,” Fukushima said. “We’re not trying to stop change and progress, but we want to make sure it doesn’t threaten our 140-year-old community.”
