 Although Japan and Korea have had a long time rivalry in sports and in history in general Shohei Otani is looking to change it Yeah, Shohei Otani is not trying to be like each year old. Let's run the clip Japanese people are pissed at Shohei Otani posting this pro-Korea picture on his Instagram with doing the Korean hard Korean emoji Signaling the Dodgers coming to Korea to play a game And they're speaking on platforms like 5 channel Which is the Japanese equivalent of Reddit and saying Shohei if you love Korea so much go become Korean you there's Korean blood in you This is just an ongoing front between Koreans and Japanese people throughout history most significantly in the early 1900s, of course Korean Being imperialized by Japan and this specifically just Show me Otani loving Koreans a little bit and showing his international fame love Koreans Of course responding to this kind of in a troll way and saying Shohei we welcome you with open arms Come become a Korean. We knew you were Korean and kind of going this friendly in my opinion battle I don't think it's that big of a deal But the fairy facts of that Japanese people are pissed by a Shohei doing this is kind of lame boom Andrew the Dodgers are in South Korea right now playing the Padres and This is a big deal because Shohei Otani is the biggest deal in baseball period Baseball is huge in Japan baseball is huge in South Korea But he is taking a very different stance on relations than Ichiro did and it almost is just reflective of a general like You know old rivals sort of trying to mend things in 2024 Dynamic that's going on right now in general. All right, so we're gonna talk about Ken Shohei Otani making impact in geopolitical relationships between the two countries love Hit that like button check out other episodes of the hot pot boys check out smile a sauce at smile a sauce Com Andrew let's be real here Japan I believe has been invading Korea since 1592 and then obviously occupied it. I want to say 1895 for a while. There's some real real beef from that era Yeah, definitely. I mean older Koreans like especially of the 50 year olds and up that were born in Korea They got stronger feelings I know obviously the younger Koreans don't feel the same way But we have to understand how history does carry over now Ichiro for example Because he played in the MLB 20 some years ago. He's from a different era, but Shohei Otani. He's trying to just be chill He's like, yo, it's all love everybody. Are you are you referring to Ichiro's mentality that was more like this? Which was a little bit more I guess Samurai and you would say that Shohei Otani's whole persona And it seems like legit like he's not doing it just to put on a show. It's very more anime Yeah, no, I mean Shohei's more of the kind of the nice guy nice dominant guy kind of like how I view Shaquille O'Neal right now or Baymax Yeah, or Baymax even when manyama. Yeah, these guys are dominant players super talented You know greatest of all times Hall of Famers, but they want to be nice about it But but I would definitely say Ichiro's mentality was more combative, but you know, it's a different time period I don't think any of the Japanese players coming over are thinking like how Ichiro did Yeah, I mean, he was from the old days some people called his mindset and his personality a little bit more imperialistic representative of Imperial Japan well, he looks like he could have been You could be in Shogun the show on FX right now Torinaga. That's that's his that's his clan Torinaga, right? Anyway guys, like we said we're not experts on this topic, but anyway, let's get into the comments section Somebody said how can Japanese said netizens be mad that Shohei threw up the heart fingers And then other Japanese came in and said we did know such thing That's just a few internet commenters blown out of proportion, but other people were coming on being like no That's a bigger part of your guys's population than you guys want to say What do you think about right now and or of incendiary netizens? Sort of having an outsized voice Representing countries, but it's just a portion of the people that are going extra hard online But of course, it's not the like formalized media of either side. Yeah, listen man I don't think unless the president start beefing and like actually people are beefing in real life I think netizen beef and just netizen comments man. Some of those people they maybe they're not even Japanese You know, but maybe they are but literally It's a vocal minority and I actually think that a lot of keyboard warriors Andrew They kind of like don't have very good lives themselves and they like live in front of a computer screen That's why they subsumed these like ultra nationalistic or like larger than life identities online Yeah How else are they gonna gain visibility or like gravity or magnetism for themselves because they don't have it in IRL Yeah, I'm not saying some of these people are not real people But I just doubt that average like socialized people that travel around a vacation in Seoul or you're a soul person in Uvication in Tokyo you probably feel less this way than the internet people do. Oh, yeah, come to think about it They might not be people from Tokyo They could be from some militant group or honestly the truth is man, even when we upload a YouTube video David I'm already budgeting that like 2% of the comments are gonna be ridiculously negative But I'm rolling with the 98% Yeah, I always find that people in real life are very different than online. Yes, really let their worst side shine online There was some jokes though in Korea that some people said the Shohei Otani was actually Korean because Because of his size Because actually Koreans genetically are bigger than Japanese people. I don't know you tell Watanabe. Is he Korean too? I think Shohei Otani is actually looks like Ryan Higa actually like a super, you know what I mean like a Baymax battle version of Ryan Higa. Yeah, he's Ryan's Japanese. Yeah I know Koreans want every great Asian person to be Korean though That's right. Right. Um, some people are talking about like they will never have trust even though the baseball trust is there now They will never restore trust between the two countries You know, I think that when politically when the two countries and I'm not a expert on the geopolitics But they're starting to have better relationships. There's this economist article that just came out talking about how Japan and Korea They're gonna be more buddy buddy with each other And as the countries are more buddy buddy and collaborating more with each other these kind of sports rivalries, they're not gonna die But they're gonna be less Visceral like it's gonna be less serious and also let's be honest and or the 25 and under generation They feel very very different from the Millennials and the Gen X all the way to the boomers Just that linkage to that like hive mind train of thought is less there People are more global citizens nowadays And I think it's hard for governments to deal with because sometimes under the government's want people to be very controllable I mean there's pros and cons of everything It's like it's like you want your people to be Nationalistic and always cheer for the home team no matter what that our tribe our tribe our tribe not your tribe But you can't help that the trend is moving towards Globalization the NBA is now 35% foreign players foreign-born players you and like, you know players move around all the time I want to be a Homer. I think being a Homer is important to an extent for sports teams, right? But then players move around so often. How do you stay attached to a team, right? Other people are saying that the reason why Japan and Korea are being South Korea are being unified right now is due to threats from North Korea Russia and China So, you know, amen, you're welcome. You're welcome for unifying Asia guys China is helping unify other Asian countries against China So, yeah, you guys will all be friends by a common enemy. I guess well, it's yeah, you know I think that I really wish it wasn't like that, but I get the joke. It's a funny joke Yeah, and there may be a some truth to that joke. Um, ultimately, what do you think Andrew show? Yo, Tony is a little bit different in the sense. He's kind of like LeBron James You know how LeBron is like a guy. He wants to like laugh. He wants to kick it He wants to do do handshakes with everybody But then sometimes people are mad at LeBron because he's not like, you know an assassin killer and like each year Oh certainly had more of that like Kobe vibe. Right, right. Yeah, I I Think I think it's cool man. I think Shohei He's like the greatest baseball player ever and for him to be showing love and him to be from Asia and show In love to other Asian countries. Listen, I'm sure even if they were to play a baseball game against the Chinese team He would still be very cordial and polite and nice and just kind of like all loving, you know And it's different than each row had a quote saying we want to show South Korea and Taiwan that they will never defeat Japan Even in the next 30 years Yo, I'm telling you man He had Asia lit off that statement people were not feeling I'm telling you man I each year old was a was a samurai. He was Each year was pretty much from the Tokugawa shogunate dude, but but you know I don't think you have to be a samurai anymore the days of the samurai are gone Sorry each year. Oh, but yeah, Shohei's the new guy He has a big voice and as long as he starts this trend and keeps up that good attitude other people are gonna follow I'm very interested to see how Asia takes shape and or because people have so much Confucianism and they are so tied into the old days, but these there's new the new people I don't know when they're gonna be in power, but they think different All right, you guys let us know what you think in the comments down below Is this a big deal that Shohei is showing love? Shohei in love. Haha. Anyways, and he got the pro basketball player wife 511 His wife's tall and pretty just how I like him already job Shohei All right, everybody hit that like button check out their sales of the hop-up boys until next time we out