A 21-year-old Rakuten pitcher, 日當直喜, posted a signed apology to his Instagram stories on the 28th over a money matter. What he admits in it is narrow: that he asked someone to lend him money, that he did not know at the time that the person was a minor, and that he ended the exchange as soon as he realised. He gives the cause as laxity in managing his money and a lack of adult self-awareness. He also says there are other people he has caused trouble to, and that he has begun discussions toward a resolution with the help of the players' association's lawyer.
Everything more specific than that comes from somewhere else. The affair began with a post on X at 13 minutes past six on the evening of the 25th, which claimed he had asked a high-school girl who was a fan for money and attached four images said to be direct messages. By the evening of the 28th that post had been viewed about 13.75 million times, with 15,000 likes and 1,582 reposts. coki sets out plainly what that leaves unestablished: his statement calls the person a minor and says nothing about their gender, exact age, whether they are at school, or whether they are a fan, and neither the authenticity of the images nor the full conversation has been independently verified.
The same is true of the rest of it. He says others were affected but does not say how many, who, or what happened. The apology gives no amount, does not say whether money actually changed hands, and says nothing about repayment.
Rakuten has published nothing. As of the evening of the 28th there was no statement and no disciplinary announcement in the club's official news list, and what the club is doing internally is not visible from outside.
He was a third-round pick out of Tokai University Sugao — the two accounts date the draft differently — and has pitched six innings across five games this season, no wins and no losses, with an earned run average of 3.00.
Why it is on the board
Fifth on the Japanese reading list when we collected, carried by デイリースポーツ.
The Japanese list is the one where our editorial scope bites hardest: of the twenty items above and around this one, most are television, celebrity interviews and personal finance. This is on the board because a sports item stops being sport when a lawyer and a minor are in it — and because our second account is one that spends most of its length on what has not been established.
확인: デイリースポーツ · coki