Personal Life
The Japanese name "Ichiro" is often written 一郎, meaning "first son". Ichiro's name, however, is written with a different character, 一朗, so that his name roughly means "brightest, most cheerful". He has an elder brother, Kazuyasu Suzuki, who is a fashion designer.
Ichiro married Yumiko Fukushima (福島弓子, Fukushima Yumiko?), a former TBS TV announcer, on December 3, 1999 at a small church in Santa Monica, California. The couple have no children. They have a pet dog (Shiba Inu) named "Ikkyu", a combination of "Ichi" (一?) of "Ichiro" and "Yumi" (弓?) of "Yumiko", which can be pronounced "kyu" as well. The couple reside in Issaquah, Washington during the season.
On March 18, 2011 Ichiro donated ¥100 million ($1.25 million) to the Japanese Red Cross for earthquake and tsunami relief efforts.
Since November 2000, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Ichiro's father, has run the Ichiro exhibition room named "I-fain" in Toyoyama, Ichiro's hometown. It exhibits a wide variety of collections of his memorabilia, personal items from his childhood and up-to-date baseball gear etc.
Ichiro is the honored chairman of the Ichiro Cup, a 6 month long boys' league tournament with more than 200 teams, held in Toyoyama and surrounding cities and towns since 1996. Ichiro watches the final game and attends its awards ceremony every year.
Read more about this topic: Ichiro Suzuki
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