Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata to resign, report saysAP, TOKYOJapan’s national baseball team manager Hirokazu Ibata has said he would step down following Japan’s 8-5 loss to Venezuela in Miami in the quarter-finals of the World Baseball Classic. The newspaper Sports Hochi reported Ibata saying it was his “intention to resign.”Japan are the defending champions and had won the event three times. Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata, front, walks onto the field of play during a practice session before the Pool C games at the World Baseball Classic at Kyocera Dome Osaka in Japan on March 1. Photo: AP“The result is everything,” Sports Hochi reported Ibata as saying. The MLB players on the Japan team included: Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Seiya Suzuki, Yusei Kikuchi, Masataka Yoshida, Munetaka Murakami, Kazuma Okamoto and Tomoyuki Sugano.

Source: Taipei Times March 17, 2026 16:18 UTC