Japanese fans were ecstatic in Tokyo on Friday (November 22) after the country's baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of Major League Baseball's (MLB) National League on Thursday (November 21) in the US.

Extra editions of local newspapers with headlines of "Ohtani MVP" were distributed in the morning at a train station in central Tokyo to inform people about the win.

"When I went to the U.S. this year, I was there to see him (Ohtani) hit a two-run shot for his 35th home run live. Since Ohtani set the record of hitting 54 home runs this year, and I was able to see one of them, I was really happy to hear that he won the MVP award", said 26-year-old Nagomu Okata after collecting two sets of newspapers for commemoration.

READ: Ohtani, Judge are unanimous choices for MLB MVP awards

Ohtani, who helped the Los Angeles Dodgers to their first world championship in four years this season, earned a unanimous vote from the Baseball Writers' Association of America to beat New York Mets' Francisco Lindor and Arizona Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte for the award.

It marked the third MVP award for Ohtani, after winning the award in 2021 and 2023 when he was playing for the Los Angeles Angels.

Ohtani, who has been one of major league baseball's best hitters since coming over from Japan in 2018, reached the 50-50 milestone with arguably the greatest single-game performance by a player in MLB history.

(Production: Irene Wang)