Who is Ippei Mizuhara? Shohei Ohtani's fired interpreter accused of 'massive theft' in gambling scandal
1. In 2013, Mizuhara met Ohtani while serving as the interpreter for the English-speaking players on the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in the Nippon Professional Baseball League. "I've known Shohei since he was 18, and when I first saw him, I was like, 'Oh, my God, this guy's unreal,'" Mizuhara told Sports Illustrated in 2021.