That growth will only continue as Ohtani, alongside other Japanese-born players like the Dodgers' Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and the Cubs' Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki, continue to make an impact in MLB. But the challenge for MLB and its partners in reaching that lofty goal is to build up the rest of the league's players in Japan as well. David Leiner, president of trading cards for Fanatics Collectibles, where he oversees Topps, said that the fandom around baseball in Japan is undeniable, with plenty of support not only for the Japanese MLB stars but the local NPB teams as well. Topps has grown its business into the eight figures in the country, Leiner said, "with Ohtani sprinkling a little accelerant into the growth." The company also holds the licenses for the Japanese baseball and soccer leagues, as well as other entertainment properties, and Leiner said Fanatics sees the potential for the market to generate upwards of nine figures. Japanese baseball card collectors aren't very different from American ones, Leiner said, but one of the significant differences is how much they look to support players from their country. "Do they want the Derek Jeter [card] or Mike Trout [card]? Of course, but they lean a little more towards the Japanese players in MLB, and there's a lot of pride in that," he said. Leiner said that does lead to the fandom of teams that Japanese players played on, and that does stick over time — for example, there is a contingent of Seattle Mariners fans in Japan due to Ichiro Suzuki's time with the team. But there are other examples of it being a fleeting phenomenon, as Japanese fans flocked to one player and then stopped following as closely when that player left MLB. Now, the growth of Japanese players, and their impact within the league, is helping to build a broader fandom for MLB. Last season, there were 10 Japanese-born players on MLB rosters on Opening Day, the most since 2013 when there were 11. While that significantly trails some of the other countries represented in the league, like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela — which had 108 and 58 players on Opening Day rosters, respectively — few countries can match the star power of the current group of Japanese players. MLB has not yet required teams to finalize 2025 Opening Day rosters, but the number of Japanese players is expected to grow. Kawana, who is based in Tokyo, said that while Japanese fans have historically been player-fandom focused, he is now seeing a growth in team fandom especially as it has become easier to follow those teams. Having MLB teams on the ground hasn't hurt either. Before this year, the last time MLB played official games in Japan was in 2019, and Garden said that the league is hoping that when it agrees to its new CBA, set to expire in 2026, it will come with "an even bigger [international] plan." MLB will host a slate of games in Monterrey, Mexico, later this month. "These sorts of things are years in the making, and it takes a long time from participation at the youth level on up to really mature," Garden said. "You're seeing the culmination of it now, and this should usher in a new era of prosperity for MLB and baseball in Asia."