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Japanese Baseball Legend Isao Harimoto Dies at 86

morning · · thread: Japanese Baseball Legend Isao Harimoto Dies at 86

3 sources · Japan

Who reported this

  • Asahi Shimbun Japan · Centre-left · Asahi Shimbun Company (family and employee held)
  • Kyodo News Japan · Centre · Non-profit publisher cooperative
  • The Japan Times Japan · Centre · News2u Holdings

What the colours mean

  • Left
  • Centre-left
  • Centre
  • Centre-right
  • Right
  • A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.

Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.

Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.

The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.

Every source for this story reports from Japan.

Isao Harimoto, the all time hit king of Japanese professional baseball, died at a Tokyo hospital on Wednesday at the age of 86. Harimoto finished his career with 3,085 hits, a record that remains the highest in the history of Nippon Professional Baseball. Over a 23 year career playing for the Toei, Giants, and Lotte, he recorded 504 home runs and was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in 1990.

Harimoto was a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which occurred when he was five years old. He suffered aftereffects in his right hand due to burns sustained during the blast. In later years, he spoke publicly about his experiences to advocate for peace and to warn younger generations against the horrors of war.

Coverage of Harimoto's passing varied by political lean. Center outlets focused primarily on his athletic achievements and his status as a baseball legend. Center left outlets provided more extensive detail regarding his identity as a second generation Zainichi Korean and his lifelong activism as an atomic bomb survivor.

How each side framed it

Centre-left
These outlets emphasized his personal history as an atomic bomb survivor and his advocacy for peace.
Centre
These outlets focused on his professional baseball records and his death.

Sources

90% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.