Softbank Hawks Yuto Akihiro infielder Akihiro opened his offseason training session with infielder Hotaka Yamakawa to the public on the 26th in Fukuoka City. In previous years, he had trained with Sho Nakata, who retired from professional baseball at the end of 2013, but that offseason he became Yamakawa's apprentice and trained with him until the end of the year. After the new year, he trained with The Giants' Hayato Sakamoto in Okinawa before rejoining Yamakawa's group.

When asked about the commonalities between the three "masters," he said, "The amount of practice they do is incredible, but their concentration on each ball is even more incredible.Their concentration on the last ball, their technique to avoid making a bad shot, and their way of thinking about practice and the game are all the same."

Regarding the characteristics of the Yamakawa group's voluntary training, he said with a sense of reality, "The physical training is amazing. Sho also does a lot, but I think they're pretty impressive in terms of the amount of practice they do."