Major League Baseball will celebrate the league’s 12 active Japanese players through custom manholes that will feature one player per design, to be installed at locations associated with each player’s roots in baseball, starting June 16th (MON). The 12 manholes were designed by different artists, each crafted to tell the “story” of the player's career, while capturing the player's unique characteristics.

The manholes will feature AR content that can only be experienced on-site, through a short AR movie that can be viewed on mobile devices by scanning the manholes.

In addition, MLB and Japan Airlines will collaborate to deliver a social media sweepstakes campaign with a grand prize that will invite five winners to an MLB tour to cheer on their favorite Japanese star in-person. Those who are eligible can enter the campaign by sharing their in-person experience at one of the manholes on social media.

Installations of manholes will launch on June 16th (MON), starting with three in Iwate Prefecture: Shohei Ohtani (Oshu), Yusei Kikuchi (Morioka), and Roki Sasaki (Rikuzentakata).

Launch venues will be unveiled gradually through MLB’s Japanese Instagram account @mlbjapan.