Ippei Mizuhara (水原一平, Mizuhara Ippei; born December 31, 1984) is a Japanese interpreter and convicted fraudster. Mizuhara served as the interpreter for Major League Baseball player Shohei Ohtani, translating Japanese to English and vice versa for Ohtani's media appearances and teammate interactions. He previously worked for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as an interpreter for several of the team's Anglophone players. Mizuhara had gained popularity among baseball fans for his close association with Ohtani. He frequently aided Ohtani in non-interpreting contexts, such as catching his bullpen sessions or throwing with him during pregame warmups. During the 2021 MLB Home Run Derby, Mizuhara served as Ohtani's catcher. On March 20, 2024, the Dodgers fired Mizuhara after Ohtani's representatives accused him of "massive theft" of Ohtani's funds to repay debts owed to a bookmaker. He was charged by the US government for bank fraud and tax evasion. On June 4, Mizuhara pled guilty to those charges, and he was sentenced to 57 months in prison plus three years of supervised release on February 6, 2025.
Source: “Ippei Mizuhara”, English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), excerpt