Time Machine: Emperor honors Bobby Valentine

This story originally ran in the Japanese newspaper Yukan Fuji in 2018.

TOKYO — I read with interest that this past August, Emperor of Japan Akihito conferred The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette on former Chiba Lotte Marines manager Bobby Valentine. The award was presented to Valentine on behalf of the Emperor by Japanese Ambassador Reiichiro Takahashi, Consul General of Japan, in mid-August at the Ambassador’s residence in New York City.

Valentine received the honor for “his outstanding contributions to the development of Japanese baseball and to the advancement of friendly relations between Japan and the United States.”

Valentine, presently Athletic Director at Sacred Heart University in his native Connecticut, co-founded the Shin Taku Juko School in Japan. The University of Southern California Business School has created a curriculum for Shin Taku Juko, which teaches values to parents and their children. The school also offers a stay-abroad program for children who lost their parents in the tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011.