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- Shohei Ohtani wife: Mamiko Tanaka
- Shohei Ohtani daughter
- Shohei Ohtani dad: Toru Ohtani
- Shohei Ohtani mom: Kayoko Ohtani
- Shohei Ohtani brother: Ryuta Ohtani
- Shohei Ohtani sister: Yuka Ohtani
- Where is Shohei Ohtani from?
There are plenty of stars scattered across MLB's landscape. But there’s only one unicorn.
Shohei Ohtani is arguably baseball’s most extraordinary talent. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ supernova is a mystifying blend of speed, power, vision and verve — and that’s just when he’s hitting. A two-way titan, Ohtani’s reputation precedes him. With a trophy case full of MVP awards, a World Baseball Classic title, and a World Series championship, he has reaped the rewards of a career that will almost certainly end in Cooperstown.
Off the field, Ohtani has drawn just as much attention. Some of it stems from his connection to the Ippei Mizuhara gambling scandal that rocked MLB in 2024. Some comes from his growing family, which has expanded significantly in recent seasons.
Here’s what you need to know about Ohtani’s family tree — from his basketball-playing wife to his badminton-loving mother.
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Shohei Ohtani wife: Mamiko Tanaka
Shohei Ohtani’s wife is Mamiko Tanaka, an athlete who made her mark on a very different playing surface: the basketball court.
Standing 5-foot-11, Tanaka excelled as a power forward and center. She played college basketball at Waseda University in Tokyo before joining the Fujitsu Red Wave of the Women’s Japan Basketball League. During her four seasons with Fujitsu, Tanaka and the Red Wave made the playoffs every year, reaching the Finals in 2022, where they fell to the Toyota Antelopes in two games.
Tanaka retired following the 2022–23 season, finishing her final year with averages of 7.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, 0.9 blocks and 1.0 steals per game. A former member of the Japanese women’s national team, she reportedly met Ohtani at a training facility — though Ohtani admits he doesn’t recall the encounter clearly. Over the next two weeks, they saw each other multiple times, laying the foundation for a long-distance relationship. The couple married in 2024 and welcomed their first child, a daughter, in April 2025.
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Shohei Ohtani daughter
Shohei Ohtani and Tanaka had their first daughter on April 19, 2025. Her name has yet to be revealed to the public.
"Welcome to the Ohtani Family," Ohtani wrote in a statement posted on Instagram. "I am so grateful to my loving wife who gave birth to our healthy beautiful daughter.
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Shohei Ohtani dad: Toru Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani's father is Toru Ohtani. He introduced Shohei to the sport at a young age, having played as an outfielder for a corporate-sponsored baseball team in a Japanese industrial league.
Toru suffered a shoulder injury at 25, prompting him to work full-time at a Mitsbushi factory. In his free time, he trained Ohtani and coached summer ball. Not much has changed all these years later; Toru Ohtani currently helms a middle school team, the Oshu City Youth Baseball Team.
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Shohei Ohtani mom: Kayoko Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani's mother is Kayoko Ohtani. She also made her mark as an athlete, earning rave reviews as an amateur badminton player in Japan. She very well could be the most talented athlete in the family.
“I can’t beat her in badminton to this day,” Shohei told MLB.com in 2017. “She’s tall and she’s been playing badminton for a long time.”
Shohei accompanied his mom to many of her badminton practices when he was a kid. He showed interest in the sport from an early age, tinkering with her equipment as she lined shots over the net.
“I would let Shohei play with the equipment,” Kayoko Ohtani told Nippon in 2022. “Maybe it’s because the motions in badminton are similar to baseball, but he could swing the racquet like a champ without me having to show him.”
Ohtani credited his mother with helping him cultivate his skills on the diamond.
"I was always playing different sports and games ... that's how I learned to move and control my body," Ohtani said in 2023, per MLB.com.
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Shohei Ohtani brother: Ryuta Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani's brother is Ryuta Ohtani. Much like his younger brother, Ryuta showed a passion for the diamond at a young age. After finding success as a local club player in Oshu, Ryuta made the leap to the pros, playing two years in an independent league. He joined the Toyota Motor East Japan Club in 2012 and remained on the roster for more than a decade, serving as the team's outfielder and coach, per Sportskeeda. In December 2024, he was promoted to manager. He's the 11th manager in Toyota Motor East Japan history.
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Shohei Ohtani sister: Yuka Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani's sister is Yuka Ohtani. Little is known about her, although Essentially Sports reported that Yuka played volleyball when she was younger and now is working as a nurse in Japan.
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Where is Shohei Ohtani from?
Shohei Ohtani hails from Ōshū, in Iwate Prefecture, Japan — a city of roughly 114,620 people located in the country’s northeasternmost region. A prodigious baseball talent as a teenager, he could have pursued his career in major cities like Osaka or Yokohama. Instead, he chose to stay close to home, attending Hanamaki Higashi High School in nearby Hanamaki City. While there, Ohtani shared the field with future MLB All-Star Yusei Kikuchi and also earned recognition for his skills as a swimmer.
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