Time Machine: How Yomiuri Giants manager Tatsunori Hara became a victim of blackmail

This story originally appeared in the Japanese newspaper Yukan Fuji in 2012.

TOKYO — I remember seeing Yomiuri Giants star Tatsunori Hara appearing on a poster for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, one that called on citizens to refuse to pay extortion money to yakuza. At the time, with his clean-cut image, he seemed a perfect fit — much like Daisuke Matsuzaka who appeared on all those traffic posters along Saitama highways urging drivers to obey the driving laws.

But you never know about these things. Matsuzaka was discovered to be driving with a suspended license, parking illegally and then lying about it one and all (and persuading team officials to lie on his behalf). Now we find that Hara was one who was actually a mark himself for organized crime.