“Why did I cheer for Korea when I’m Japanese?” Japanese baseball YouTuber hooked on Korean pro baseball

[Financial News] A Japanese person cheered loudly for South Korea’s national team, not Japan’s, at an Asian Games held in Japan. He is B-Morel, a 30-year-old Japanese baseball YouTuber with more than 200,000 subscribers. He got hooked on Korean professional baseball (Korea Baseball Organization, KBO) after watching a game at Daegu Samsung Lions Park a year ago. This year, he visited all the KBO top-tier ballparks and spent a month living in Korea, going to baseball games.
He had gradually become known among Korean baseball fans after starting to post videos of himself attending KBO games, but he drew widespread attention during the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. From Korea’s first preliminary-round game against Taiwan through the Korea-Japan matchup, he attended in person and left a strong impression on Korean baseball fans with videos of himself cheering for Korea. We spoke with him by video on the 21st to ask why he cheered for Korea and what made Korean professional baseball so appealing to him.

B-Morel said, “After I discovered Korean baseball, I started enjoying baseball twice as much.” Explaining why he cheered for South Korea’s team at the recent Asian Games, he said, “The Japanese team this time didn’t have the players I usually watch, while the Korean team had stars like KIM Do-young, Yun Dong-hee and Roh Si-hwan. I’d followed those players all year and felt attached to them, so I naturally found myself cheering for Korea.”
The fact that a Japanese person cheered for Korea in the Korea-Japan matchup drew considerable attention among Korean baseball fans. B-Morel added, “Koreans seem to have a strong sense that it’s only natural to cheer for ‘South Korea,’ no matter the situation or who’s on the team. In Japan, quite a few people cheer for other countries depending on which players they like, even at events like the WBSC Premier12 or the World Baseball Classic (WBC), so I felt the difference in fervor.”

B-Morel first encountered Korean baseball a little over two years ago. He posted a video titled “I Tried Going to a KBO Game” on his Japanese YouTube channel and was surprised by the enthusiastic cheering, but it wasn’t enough to get him hooked. However, on May 25, 2025, he watched a game between the Samsung Lions and the Kia Tigers at Daegu Samsung Lions Park with a Korean YouTuber (Samsung won 3-2) and was instantly captivated by Korean professional baseball.
“It was an incredible seesaw game, with the teams trading runs. KIM Do-young of the Kia Tigers hit a home run, and then Lewin Díaz of the Samsung Lions hit a walk-off homer,” B-Morel recalled of the game. “I was captivated by the atmosphere in Daegu and the distinctive flow of KBO games, where home runs are common, and that’s when I got hooked.”
He also said, “Japan is very pitching-dominant and low-scoring right now, so if you give up runs early, the mood gets heavy. In KBO, you can come back from giving up the first run. Everyone has such free-swinging swings that it’s exhilarating to watch,” citing hitting as one of Korean baseball’s attractions.

B-Morel is known for videos of him belting out cheer songs at the top of his lungs. Korean fans were amazed, asking, “How can a Japanese person sing Korean cheer songs like that?” The secret was simple: he kept playing compilations of the songs on YouTube, both while traveling and while working, and memorized them by ear. He later learned how to read Hangul and words such as “hit” and “send it flying.”
He also experienced firsthand the differences between the two countries’ cheering cultures. “In Japan, fans cheer from the outfield seats with trumpets and drums, and each player has a cheer song with long lyrics, so it can be hard for foreigners to join in. In Korea, there’s a stage in the infield and fans cheer through speakers. The lyrics are so simple that even I, who can’t manage everyday conversation in Korean, can memorize them,” he said, explaining that Korean cheering is more accessible.
Another difference from Japan is the number of young women in the stands. Asked what the two countries have in common, he laughed and replied, “The food at the ballpark is delicious.” He named the pork belly set meal at Jamsil Baseball Stadium as the best thing he had eaten.
Originally from Osaka, he first went to a baseball stadium as an elementary school student, holding his parents’ hands. He fell in love early on with the sight of so many people gathering in one place to sing together, and continued posting baseball-cheering vlogs on YouTube. After completing graduate school, he joined a major Japanese construction company, but in 2021, when the Orix Buffaloes—his favorite team—were chasing their first championship in 25 years, he couldn’t hold back and resigned. “I couldn’t bear being so busy with work that I might miss capturing the glorious moment of the team winning the championship,” he said. He added, “I thought I only had one life, and if things didn’t work out, I could always get another job.”
We wondered whether he regretted his decision to leave a major company without hesitation. But B-Morel replied firmly, “Not at all.” He said, “If I’d stayed at the company, I never could have lived a life where I came to Korea this often and went to Taiwan, too.” He added that he was enjoying life as it is: “Being self-employed means I have to manage everything myself, which is difficult, but I’m truly grateful that I can make a living doing what I love.”


The KBO channel he launched last November recently passed 10,000 subscribers. But that’s not enough to cover the expenses he incurs each time he comes to watch a game. B-Morel said the channel is “deeply in the red” and that he runs it as a hobby, adding that he deliberately does not promote it on his Japanese channel, which has more than 200,000 subscribers.
The reason is clear: he wants to keep the joy of attending KBO games in person within the realm of pure “passion.” “I’d get far more views if I posted the videos on my Japanese channel, but I deliberately don’t,” he said. “Right now, what I enjoy most is sharing what I love with Korean fans.” Since he posts videos on the night of the game, he often gets comments asking, “Do you really edit everything by yourself?” The answer is, “By myself.”
This summer, he rented a room in Korea and lived there for a month. “I’d work at home and then go straight to the ballpark, and sometimes I’d take an overnight bus from Busan to Seoul. I feel like I’ve gotten a little closer to the way people in Korea experience baseball.” His extended stay also made it possible for him to visit second-team ballparks, including Sangdong and Icheon.
B-Morel dreams of becoming a bridge between Korean and Japanese baseball. “Most Japanese people know very little about Korean baseball, and Koreans don’t know much about Japanese baseball either,” he said. “After I discovered Korean baseball, I started enjoying baseball twice as much. I’d like to build my influence in both countries and help connect their baseball cultures.” He has been in Korea since the 24th to cheer on the Samsung Lions in the postseason.
[email protected] Kim Hee-sun Reporter