Will Shohei Ohtani’s paternity leave change Japan’s attitude on the issue?

TOKYO —Well, Shohei Ohtani is a Daddy, the father of a newborn baby girl with his wife Mamiko. Shohei went on a three-game paternity leave over the past weekend as per custom in MLB. The news was widely reported in the Japanese media, making the front page of the national daily sports newspapers. The 7 p.m. NHK news fondly headlined the story as “Ohtani Goes on ‘Papa List,’ ” describing the situation in glowing terms.

How times have changed. Taking time off for births and deaths in the family, is an everyday occurrence in the United States and the big leagues. It was long considered a no-no in the Japanese professional baseball world, even though NPB rules technically allowed it. Other family members were supposed to step up.

Foreign imports were exceptions, but Japanese were expected to emulate then Yomiuri Giants manager Sadaharu Oh when his father passed away in 1985. Oh, at the time was in Hiroshima for a series with the Carp. He took the overnight train back to Tokyo for the wake then the bullet train the next day to Nagoya for the opener of the Giants series with the Chunichi Dragons. Didn’t miss an inning — a testament to the expectations of the times, although one might add the notoriously headstrong Senichi Hoshino missed a game as manager of the Chunichi Dragons in 1997, in order to attend the funeral of his wife, in a rare example of defying convention.