Japanese Athletes that Command the Highest Pay for Commercials

As a sort of counterpart to my previous post about what sports impress Japanese women, Gendai Business recently came out with a list of the Japanese athletes who are highest paid for commercials. This list mixes pro and amateur athletes.

1. Ryo Ishikawa – (golf) – 120 million yen
2. Ichiro Suzuki (baseball, Seattle Mariners) – 100 million yen
3.(tied) Yuki Saito (baseball, the “hankerchief prince” of Waseda, drafted in 2010 by the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters) – 50 million yen
3.(tied) Keisuke Honda (soccer, CSKA Moscow) – 50 million yen
5.(tied) Hideki Matsui (baseball, Oakland Athletics) – 40 million yen
5.(tied) Daisuke Matsuzaka (baseball, Boston Red Sox) – 40 million yen
5.(tied) Mao Asada (figure skating) – 40 million yen
5.(tied) Yu Darvish (baseball, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters) – 40 million yen
5.(tied) Senichi Hoshino (baseball, retired player and current manager of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles) – 40 million yen
10. Masahiro Tanaka (baseball, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles) – 35 million yen
10. Ai Miyazato (golf) – 35 million yen

The amateur members on this list are Yuki Saito and Mao Asada. If anyone wants to see the original lists, separated by pro and amateur, you can find it here.