There’s a lot of noise regarding Hideki Matsui’s marriage, which is very atypical of most sports marriages in Japan. Normally a sports celebrity marries someone in the entertainment or news industry to increase PR–in other words, make them look good. The woman, an attractive TV personality, normally quits her job after she gets married to the sport celeb, and is often older than him because naturally someone who leads such a stressful life needs a mother-figure in his life.

Now let’s take a look at Matsui’s marriage: his wife is a “regular person,” is eight years younger than him, and can make a “mean burger.” What? Marrying out of love? Japanese people?

Whereas other sports wives are public figures and remain famous for helping their husbands become famous, nobody even knows what Matsui’s wife looks like–just some sketches him and his brother drew for the press (awww. I think?)

Of course interest is piqued in this mystery woman, but it seems that Matsui is going at lengths to keep her identity a secret. I find this marriage to be a cool exception to the norm because Japanese marriages (especially celebrity ones) are traditionally not out of love but out of obligation of continuing family lineage. To marry someone who may even end up hurting your career takes a lot of guts, which makes me think this isn’t a PR stunt. This will be one time I root for a Yankees’ player

Source: Matsui’s got a nice wife, but can she cook a mean hamburger? - Japan Times

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Foxes | culture, japan, social | Monday, April 7th, 2008 | Trackback