Photo: Orixbaseballclub / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
At 176 cm, Yamakawa is not the towering slugger the archetype calls for, which is exactly why I find him compelling. He has led the Pacific League in home runs four times — 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2024 — and the gaps between those seasons are the part that impresses me most. Anyone can have one loud year; climbing back to the top after falling off it is the harder trick, and he has done it twice. He came up through Chubu Commercial High School in Okinawa and Fuji University rather than any glamour route, and when he moved from the Saitama Seibu Lions to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks the power came with him. That travels-well quality tells me the swing was always his, not his ballpark's.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Hotaka Yamakawa
- Name (Japanese)
- 山川穂高
- Born
- November 23, 1991 (age 34)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Goat
- Origin
- Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
- Height
- 176 cm
- Occupation
- baseball player
2. Background
- High school
- Chubu Commercial High School
- University
- Fuji University
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
- Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/hotamyon3/
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E5%B7%9D%E7%A9%82%E9%AB%98
Frequently asked questions
When was Hotaka Yamakawa born?
Born November 23, 1991 (age 34).
Where is Hotaka Yamakawa from?
Hotaka Yamakawa is from Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
What does Hotaka Yamakawa do?
Hotaka Yamakawa works as baseball player.
How tall is Hotaka Yamakawa?
Hotaka Yamakawa is 176 cm.
Baseball player — see all → · More people from Japan →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-07-26
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.