JAPAN SPORTS NOTEBOOK | Sorato Shimizu Sets 100-Meter Under-18 World Record

Running at full speed, Sorato Shimizu won the boys 100-meter final at the 2025 Japan Inter-High School Championships on Saturday, July 26 in Hiroshima.

Shimizu, a 16-year-old student at Seiryo High School in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, reached the finish line in 10 seconds flat. 

He broke the national high school record set by Yoshihide Kiryu in 2013 (10.01 seconds). And he also set an under-18 world record in the race. The previous mark was shared by American Christian Miller and Thai runner Puripol Boonson, both of whom were clocked in 10.6 seconds in separate races in 2023, according to Track & Field News' online archive.

What was Shimizu's reaction after his notable achievement?

"I was determined to run under 10 seconds heading into the final. I'm happy to have set a high school record," Shimizu said, according to Kyodo News, at Hot Staff Field Hiroshima.

Elaborating on the race and the joy of victory in an interview with NHK, Shimizu said, "The 10.00-second time was shocking even to me, but I'm happy I was able to achieve it. Winning was my goal, so I focused on running my own race without hesitation. 

"From the start, I was able to connect to my signature 'second acceleration' and execute the movements I couldn't do in the preliminaries, so that was good."

Shimizu's previous best time in the 100 meters was 10.19 seconds on July 4, according to the World Athletics website.

At the 2024 Japan Inter-High School Championships in Fukuoka, Shimizu clocked 10.37 seconds.

Future Goals for Sorato Shimizu

The future looks bright for Sorato Shimizu as a sprinter. He's only 16. And he continues to improve, continues to get faster, which he wants to keep doing.

"From now on, I will have to live up to the 10.00-second time," he told NHK. "But my goal in high school is to break the 9-second barrier, so I want to achieve that and become a 9-second sprinter."

Looking ahead, Shimizu wants to compete on the global stage as soon as possible. He has qualified to participate in the men's 100 meters at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The qualifying heats are on September 13, followed by the semifinals and the final the next day at National Stadium. 

"I'd like to get a taste of it if I can make it," Shimizu said, according to Kyodo News.

RELATED:

• Racing the UK Ekiden Through 160 Years of Ties
• [ODDS and EVENS] Hiromi Taniguchi Became the 1st Japanese Track World Champion in 1991

Baseball

Ichiro Discovers a Passion for Cooking

Did you know that baseball great Ichiro Suzuki is, in his own words, "totally obsessed with cooking now?"

The retired superstar revealed his newfound love for cooking in an interview with Kyodo News.

It's a work in progress for the 51-year-old, who mostly makes pasta and risotto.

"When I'm at home, I just wait for my wife to cook for me. But I began to think that wasn't good for me, so I asked one of my friends to teach me how to make pasta. That's how I got started," Ichiro was quoted as saying.

"No one could've imagined that I would wear an apron and become so into cooking. I had never even held a knife. Of course, my wife still cooks me nutritionally balanced meals, and she also teaches me how to cook."

Ichiro will take a break from cooking on Sunday, July 27. He'll attend the National Baseball Hall of Fame's induction ceremony in Cooperstown, New York. The other 2025 inductees are CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, the late Dick Allen and Dave Parker, who passed away on June 28 at age 74.

Veteran baseball reporter Barry Bloom, who will be at the induction ceremony for the 22nd time, put Ichiro's career in perspective in an article published on the website Sportico. "Ichiro's Hall Election Punctuates Player Influx From Japan," the headline reads.

Here's Bloom's apt introduction: "Japanese players have made an indelible impact on Major League Baseball, and nothing could punctuate that fact better than Ichiro Suzuki's induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday."

RELATED:

• ODDS and EVENS | Baseball Banter on a Hot Summer Day

Darvish Still Winless in 2025

Yu Darvish slipped to 0-3 in the 2025 MLB season after lasting just 3⅓ innings in a start on Thursday, July 24 against the St Louis Cardinals. Darvish allowed eight runs and eight hits in the San Diego Padres' 9-7 road loss at Busch Stadium. He walked two and struck out three.

It was Darvish's fourth start of the season. He had been sidelined for more than three months with a right elbow injury.

In his third start of the year, on July 19 against the Washington Nationals, the 38-year-old right-hander allowed five hits and three runs in five innings with a walk and a strikeout.

The San Diego Union Tribune reported on Darvish's assessment of his pitching in the early stage of his comeback. 

"I wasn't particularly happy about how I was pitching out there," Darvish said on July 19, according to the California newspaper.

He then said, "I was able to go five innings, and that's the longest that I've been able to go after coming back, so I think that part was good. But I was maybe getting too much [of] the strike zone. So that part, I think I can adjust and be better next time out."

Darvish is Making Adjustments

Although Darvish had a disappointing performance on July 24, he is gaining strength, which is important for pitchers.

"Stamina-wise, I feel good. I was strong all throughout the game," Darvish said on July 19. "So that part, I think, is good. Just the command. That was part of the issue for tonight, and that's something that I need to work on a little bit more leading up to the next game. … I think it's just part of coming back to the game. Just the mechanical adjustment that I need to fine tune in order to have that right command. Once I get there, I should be fine."

In other baseball news, Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani went 1-for-4, hitting a single and also reaching base on a walk, against the Boston Red Sox on Friday, July 25 at Fenway Park. Ohtani's streak of consecutive games with a home run ended at five, three shy of tying the MLB record shared by three players. The Dodgers won 5-2. 

Also, in Japan, the Pacific League beat the Central League 5-1 at Osaka's Kyocera Dome and 10-7 at Yokohama Stadium in the 2025 NPB All-Star Games on Wednesday and Thursday.

Gymnastics

Japan Wins a Pair of Team Titles at the World University Games

The Japan women's artistic gymnastics squad won the team final at the 2025 World University Games on July 24 in Essen, Germany. Participating gymnasts were Kohane Ushioku, Shoko Miyata, Mana Okamura, Kokoro Fukasawa and Urara Asahikawa.

Japan amassed 163.850 points to finish in first place, followed by Spain (151.750) and France (150.650).

In capturing the gold medal, Japan had the highest scores on the vault (41.150), the uneven bars (40.600) and the balance beam (42.300) and in the floor exercise (39.800).

Asahikawa said the team's focus on performance paid off.

"When you do your performance, you don't think of the victory," Asahikawa said, according to International Gymnast Online. "You think of what you have to do. We focused on our strengths and not on the victory. That, I think, is the reason why we won. All of our team members were going to the limit to get the points they wanted to have. We were strong right from the beginning."

Japan Men Finish Atop Leaderboard

On Tuesday, July 22, Japan triumphed in the men's team final at the same venue with a total score of 252.07.

Canada and Switzerland placed second and third, respectively, with 239.593 and 239.162.

Two-time Olympian Daiki Hashimoto, Tomoharu Tsunogai, reigning Olympic all-around champ Shinnosuke Oka, Shohei Kawakami and Tsuyoshi Hasegawa competed for Japan in the men's final. 

To secure the title, Japan finished first on the vault (42.832 points), parallel bars (44.332) and horizontal bar (44.133).

"On pommel horse, two [Japanese] gymnasts had mistakes," Hashimoto said, according to International Gymnast Online. "That can happen. From rings [onwards], we had a strong competition. On the high bar, we finished strong. It was a good competition today. We did very strong as a team."

Soccer

Defender Watanabe Joins Dutch Club Feyenoord

Tsuyoshi Watanabe has signed a four-year contract to play for Dutch first-division team Feyenoord, it was announced on Wednesday, July 23.

The 28-year-old defender previously suited up for Belgian club Gent. Watanabe began his pro career with FC Tokyo in 2019, then started playing for Belgium's Kortrijk in 2022 before moving on to Gent a year later.

Japanese striker Ayase Ueda scored seven goals in 21 league matches for Feyenoord in the 2024-25 campaign.

Quotes of the Week

"We want to make sure that we're an inclusive tourism destination and that everybody who comes to visit has an equal experience. It's not every day that the first Japanese-born baseball player (Ichiro) gets inducted into the Hall of Fame, so we needed to bulk up our infrastructure and capability to communicate with people who might be visiting Cooperstown for the first time."

―Cassandra Harrington, president and CEO of the Destination Marketing Corporation for Otsego County. Her company made bilingual brochures in English and Japanese to provide information about top tourist attractions in Cooperstown, New York, The Cooperstown Crier reported on July 22.

"As a player from Japan, as a guy that had led the league in hitting all seven years, and then coming over being [the] first position player, I knew that I would be judged. And Japan baseball will be judged on how I did. If I wasn't able to produce, then they would judge Japan baseball as being at a lower level. And so that pressure was there and that's what I had to carry."

―Ichiro Suzuki, reflecting on the pressure he faced when he moved from NPB to MLB in 2001, according to an NBC News feature published in the run-up to the Hall of Fame festivities.

RELATED:

• [ODDS and EVENS] Ichiro Suzuki's Great MLB Career Began 20 Years Ago This Week
• Ichiro Suzuki Elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Author: Ed Odeven

Find Ed on JAPAN Forward's dedicated website, SportsLook. Follow his [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.