With Shohei Ohtani as leader, Japan returns to WBC a more joyful team

Seiya Suzuki was midway through his home run trot when he held out his left hand as if clutching an imaginary bowl.Holding an invisible whisk in his other hand, the Chicago Cubs outfielder made a stirring motion.The Samurai Japan bench erupted.Shohei Ohtani broke into laughter.

Some of the players around him started preparing their own bowls of make-believe tea. This scene from Samurai Japan’s last exhibition game before the World Baseball Classic was what Ohtani had in mind when he assigned 26-year-old pitcher Koki Kitayama the task of coming up with a team celebration. “We initially had an atmosphere in which the younger players didn’t feel as if they could proactively speak to the older players,” Ohtani told reporters.Kitayama was one of the players Ohtani found to be too respectful.So last week, Ohtani playfully told Kitayama to not sleep until he thought of a celebration that incorporated Japanese culture.

Kitayama’s initial idea — rubbing an imaginary Japanese tea cup — was rejected by Ohtani.“Spend another night thinking about it,” Kitayama recalled being told by Ohtani.Kitayama presented the ocha-tate celebration to the team before its final tuneup.The exercise produced its desired effect. Samurai Japan, as Japan’s national baseball team is called in its homeland, will start its defense of its WBC title with a group-stage showdown against Taiwan on Thursday. This version of Samurai Japan has a different feel than any of the teams it fielded in the five previous WBCs.More joyful.

More playful.More relaxed.The team has taken on the personality of its leader, Ohtani.In Japanese culture, seniority is comparable in importance to ability, which is why the 31-year-old Ohtani has never previously found himself in this position with Samurai Japan.

At the last WBC three years ago, the responsibility of establishing the team’s culture belonged to Yu Darvish, who is eight years Ohtani’s senior.Over the course of the tournament, Ohtani bec...