A Chronicle of Yomiuri Misconduct and the Club's Responses - From the 2008 Doping Ban to the Online Casino Case

The Answer - Penalties Announced, Reports Denied, and Cases With No Announced Penalty

2008 to 2013 - From a Doping Release to a Fine Over an Incident at Camp

A test after the April 30, 2008 game against Hiroshima found three banned stimulants in a sample from Luis Gonzalez. On May 26, NPB suspended him for one year, and the club decided the same day to release him. Gonzalez denied taking any banned substance.

On July 10, 2008, amid the furor over a weekly magazine's report on players' association chairman Tomohiro Nioka and a woman, his promotion to the first team was put on hold. Second-team manager Sadaaki Yoshimura explained that "his running speed has not come back to where it should be," but owner Takuo Takihana apologized the same day, saying "on behalf of the team, I sincerely apologize," and when asked whether the furor was one reason for the delay, answered: "It may be. He is the players' association chairman." On November 14, a two-for-two trade sending Nioka and Masanori Hayashi to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters was announced. Club representative Hidetoshi Kiyotake explained that "considering his chances to play, we decided to release him to a new home." The trade was not announced as a penalty.

In June 2012, Shukan Bunshun reported that manager Hara had paid 100 million yen in 2006 in connection with a 1988 matter involving a woman, and Hara apologized. The Yomiuri Giants sued Bungeishunju and lost, with the defeat becoming final in 2016 (the article on Tatsunori Hara's 100 million yen affair). In August, NEWS Post Seven reported a relationship between Shinnosuke Abe and a female celebrity; the club's PR office replied that there was no relationship and that she was one of his friends. There was no penalty.

On March 7, 2013, the club gave Toshiya Sugiuchi a severe reprimand and a fine, the amount undisclosed. The penalty came in response to a weekly magazine about to report, the next day, that he had met a woman at the team hotel during the February WBC national team camp. Club representative and general manager Atsushi Harasawa said "this is not something a severe reprimand alone can settle," and called the fine "not a small amount."

2015 to 2018 - Cases the Club Investigated and Penalized Publicly

In the baseball gambling case that began in October 2015, pitchers Satoshi Fukuda, Shoki Kasahara and Tatsuya Matsumoto were banned indefinitely and Kyosuke Takagi for one year, the club was fined, and the owner and two other executives resigned (the article on the Yomiuri baseball gambling scandal). In March 2016, a practice in which players who gave the pregame huddle talk received cash depending on the result came to light, and the club banned it (the article on the huddle pep-talk cash).

Between the night of July 10 and the early hours of July 11, 2017, Shun Yamaguchi injured his right hand at his birthday party, then got into an argument with a security guard at the hospital where he went for treatment, leaving the guard with injuries that took two weeks to heal, and also damaged a door. He was questioned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police on suspicion of causing injury and damaging property, but settlements were reached with the guard and the hospital, and the victim's police report was withdrawn. On August 18, the club announced the results of its investigation and imposed a suspension through the end of the 2017 season, plus a fine and pay cut equal to his pay from the day of the incident. Club president Kazuo Ishii apologized, saying "as club president, I offer my deepest apologies."

On August 28, the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association asked the club to reconsider, calling the penalty too harsh, and asked the commissioner to investigate and rule. The club's PR office replied: "We believe the penalty imposed on pitcher Shun Yamaguchi is appropriate." Yamaguchi had joined from DeNA as a free agent in the 2016 offseason.

On July 7, 2018, the club issued two penalties. Takahiro Kakizawa's contract was terminated after the club's investigation found he had stolen about 110 pieces of teammates' equipment from the locker room at the Yomiuri Giants Stadium and sold them. Shimpei Shinohara and Motoki Kono, over a June incident in a private room at a restaurant in which Shinohara stripped and Kono posted the video he shot to followers only, received suspensions with no set end date and fines equal to 20% of the pay due to them from July onward (estimated at about 700,000 yen for Kono and about 1.45 million yen for Shinohara). Captain Hayato Sakamoto, who had been at the same gathering, received a severe reprimand on July 6. He had left before the filming and was not involved, but the club called "accompanying a drinking party that caused trouble during the season" an act that "lacked a captain's awareness."

2019 to 2021 - A Written Reply, an Exit for Personal Reasons, and a Protest

Shukan Asahi Geino, on sale May 7, 2019, reported that Hirokazu Sawamura had assaulted a man in a building elevator in mid-April. The next day, the club's PR office replied in writing to J-CAST News, acknowledging that, while drunk, he had grabbed a fellow passenger around the neck with one hand and pushed him against the wall for several seconds. The club said it had severely reprimanded him and that talks had ended amicably after his apology to the man, closing with: "The club also apologizes once again." No fine or suspension was announced.

On October 16, 2019, the club announced the departure of first-team outfield and baserunning coach Takahiro Suzuki, saying it had accepted his request to leave for "personal reasons." It was three days before the Japan Series opened, and a report about his private life came out the same day. The departure was not announced as a dismissal or a disciplinary measure.

On June 24, 2020, having learned that Shukan Shincho would report on manager Hara's "gambling golf" the next day, the club announced that it had lodged a strong protest with Shinchosha, demanding the article be retracted and an apology printed, on the grounds that the article "consists of absurd and baseless content." The statement says: "No such facts exist at all."

In August 2021, the club acquired Sho Nakata, who was serving a suspension imposed by Nippon-Ham, in a free trade, and the move effectively ended his suspension (the article on Sho Nakata's free trade).

2022 Onward - Cases With No Announced Penalty, and the Online Casino Case

On June 15, 2022, Daily Shincho reported that Hayato Sakamoto had injured a woman serving customers at a restaurant in Miyazaki in February 2018 and paid 5.5 million yen. In September, a dispute with a former girlfriend was also reported (the article on Hayato Sakamoto). At the end of November, Sakamoto agreed to an unchanged salary of 600 million yen, and the club announced no penalty.

On April 26, 2023, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested a member of a Sumiyoshi-kai affiliated gang on suspicion of seriously injuring an acquaintance at a drinking party in December 2022. Louis Okoye had joined the party after being asked to do fan service and had already left by the time of the assault. He knew the gang member but explained that he "did not know he was a gang member," and the club said it had "judged that this does not amount to association or friendship with antisocial forces."

On February 20, 2025, right after the club called on online casino users to come forward, Okoye and Daiki Masuda did so and offered to turn themselves in. On May 8, the police referred both to prosecutors on suspicion of gambling, and the club said both had "accepted without objection the maximum fines agreed upon by the 12 clubs." On June 26, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to prosecute either player. Sixteen people from eight clubs were found to be involved, and each was fined by their own club.

In April 2025, it was reported that the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau had found that Sakamoto failed to declare about 240 million yen of income over the three years through 2022. He paid about 100 million yen in additional tax through an amended return, and no heavy penalty tax was imposed. The Yomiuri Giants commented that it was "not a malicious failure to declare or concealment of income" (the article on tax evasion and undeclared income by NPB players).

Our View - Uneven Penalties and Different Ways of Answering Reports

Laid side by side, the penalties do not look consistent. The young Shinohara and Kono received open-ended suspensions and fines of 20% of their pay, and Yamaguchi, who had arrived as a free agent, received a penalty the players' association protested as too harsh. Meanwhile, the core player Sakamoto had no penalty announced after the report on the 2018 case, and his contract was renewed at the same salary. The cases differ in substance and in how much could be confirmed, so this cannot be called favoritism. Still, the yardstick for how heavy a penalty each case received cannot be read from the announcements.

The responses also follow different patterns. To the reports on Abe in 2012 and Hara in 2020, the club responded quickly with a denial or a protest: in Abe's case the PR office denied the relationship, and in Hara's case the club protested the report as baseless the day before the magazine went on sale. In cases that involve penalties, the club publishes the results of its own investigation: for Yamaguchi in 2017 and Kakizawa in 2018, the circumstances and penalties were presented as the club's findings.

The club sanctioned over baseball gambling in 2015 and 2016 produced two online casino users in 2025, but they were two of 16 people from eight clubs, and this fact alone does not establish any link to the gambling case.

How to Read This, and Its Limits

This chronicle is built from what could be confirmed in club announcements, NPB notices and official bulletins, and the text of newspaper and magazine articles. Reports about private lives are presented as a pair of the report and the club's response, and where there was a denial, a settlement, a decision not to prosecute or no penalty, that is noted alongside. The aim is to avoid presenting suspicions carried in reports as more certain than the confirmed facts.

The names of the women, victims and the gang member, the details of the reports, the amount of the 2025 club sanctions and later developments that could not be confirmed (whether there were arrests, or when suspensions were lifted) are not included.