TOKYO (AP) — There's an adage in Japanese that translates easily to English.
Deru kugi wa utareru.
The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.
Ichiro Suzuki has been the nail in a culture that values formality, caution, and deference to authority. Doing it his way, he's developed into Japan's greatest baseball player and arguably its best athlete.
"At such a young age he already had his own mind," said Keizo Konishi, a reporter with the Japanese news agency Kyodo. "The older generation tells young people what they should do. Particularly in the structured baseball world.