Agreed. I lived in Japan previously and have lots of Japanese colleagues. Kawauchi is most definitely not a "megastar" in Japan. The Japanese in my office know of him because I (a foreigner) talk about him to them! To those who are wondering why he's staying until next March: I can almost guarantee it's not about any vesting or anything like that (which would be super unusual in Japan, esp for a job like he has). It's a very, very Japanese attitude to feel like he should work the rest of the academic year and not leave his employers in the middle of the year. I would have been more surprised if he had just up and quit on short notice.
4:10 online, 5:40 on the track wrote:
Kuyi wrote:
Totally clueless responses on here. Yuki is a mega star in Japan now, he has the marketing power of basketball or Baseball stars in the US. Marathon running is huge, his story has great potential for marketing. he won't have to worry about making a living ever again.
Congrats. That wasn't coherent a all.
You couldn't be more wrong. mega stars are kei nishikori, yuzuru hanyu, ichiro, and Ohtani. Kawauchi is not a household name. I live in Japan and have asked people here about Kawauchi after his Boston win. They don't know who he is and he has been "the peoples runner" for years already. Not to mention, marathoners do not get paid well in Japan, at any level.
Kawauchi makes 300,000 yen a month as a school admin and is staying for an entire extra school year (which just started in April). This says all about the money Kawauchi will earn, not about his honor to "social harmony" by obligating his current school contract. If the money were there, he would be gone, right now, from his $3,000 a month salary man job.