I follow many Japanese sports & athletes. Shunsuke Nakamura from his time at Celtic, Koki Mizuno who is at Celtic, I follow the J-League, this year I'll follow Kamui Kobayashi in Formula 1 and I follow Hideki Mutoh in IndyCar

Atsushi Nohmi, a pitcher of the Hanshin Tigers. I started liking baseball thanks to him :)

For me of the motorcycle rider, I respect Yoshimasa Sugawara.

He runs Japanese off-road motorcycle race and HINO even at the present when nearly 70 years old were and participates in a Dakar race.

But he is a professional driver, but it is not professional rider.

Just remembered my fav motorcycle rider. Superbike rider Ryouchi Kiyonari

Just found out that Grenoble, in the French Ligue 1, have 2 Japanese players. Daisuke Matsui & Sho Ito. I also like Takayuki Morimoto in Serie A

sport
 

Kawaguchi Yuko, a star of skating.

Except there are japanese athletes that exceed in many other sports...like baseball, karate, ice-skating, etc...

I try to follow Yuta Tabuse, but its not very easy with him not playing in the NBA. I had hoped after the summer camp the Mavericks might hire him. Oh, well.

I would like to follow sumo, but with only local broadcast TV there is not much of it to watch in Texas. (any?)

And I have a friend who keeps tempting me towards Aikido.... but not very successfully.

Hidetoshi Nakata