The first place he went to report his retirement was not a press conference. It was a memorial in Kagoshima, under a clear sky, for a friend from his draft class.

Yuta Iwasada, 35, a left-hander who spent 13 seasons with the Hanshin Tigers, posted a short message and a single photo on Instagram on November 2. “Retirement report. Clear skies in Kagoshima. Went to see him after a long time. It was a splendid memorial.” The place in the photo was the memorial monument for Shintaro Yokota, his 2013 draft classmate.

The First and Second Picks

Iwasada joined Hanshin out of Yokohama College of Commerce; Yokota came out of Kagoshima Jitsugyo High School. Iwasada was the first-round pick, Yokota the second. They walked through the professional door in the same year, in the same uniform.

Yokota died in July 2023 at 28 after battling a brain tumor. Iwasada kept pitching after that, and closed out his 13-year playing career at the end of this season. The first destination he chose for his retirement announcement was the hometown of the friend he had started alongside.

The fans’ comments were as quiet as the photo. “Yokota must be happy too,” “Seeing the blue sky and Iwasada’s gentle smile brought me to tears,” “Don’t make me cry.” One comment read: “Yokota, too, must be so pleased about the 13 years and the new job as a manager, with a feeling of ‘well done.’”

“Because He Was a Teammate I Fought Alongside”

A day before the monument, on November 1, Iwasada first visited the Kagoshima home where Yokota’s parents live. He pressed his hands together quietly before the Buddhist altar and, looking at the playing-days photos arranged around it, smiled: “Yoko really looks cool, as always.” Then he said: “I’m glad I could report my retirement. Because he was a teammate I fought alongside.”

He had pictured this moment for a long time. “It would have been the best if we could still be playing together… I will never forget him, and I want to keep thinking of him.” He had planned to visit the grave in Kagoshima in the offseason and report his retirement there. “I’d like him to say ‘well done,’ but he’d probably say something like, ‘You already quit?’” Inside the joke imitating his friend’s voice was a wish to keep the conversation going.

The Next Stage Is the Manager’s Seat

Iwasada’s next stage is not the mound but the manager’s seat. Starting next season, he will manage the Ishikawa Million Stars of the independent Japan Sea League, dispatched from Hanshin. A left-hander closing 13 years as a player now moves to a seat where he looks after someone else’s baseball.

That is why the single photo lingers. It was not a farewell tally of statistics, but a greeting delivered first to the person he started with. Turning the last page of his playing career, the first person Iwasada went to find was the classmate who could not stay until the end.

Sources: THE ANSWER (Japan), 2026-11-02 / Full-Count (Japan), 2026-11-02 / Sponichi (Japan), 2026-11-01