The media learned on Thursday that the Rakuten Eagles hired Hiromoto Okubo to be an Ichi-gun batting coach next season.  The contract is a 1-year deal worth 15M yen.  He has already been assigned the number 95.  An official announcement will be made soon.

The media learned today that Hiromoto Okubo will be abandoning his lawsuit against the Seibu Lions in order to focus his efforts on a possible return to coaching at the professional level -- the Rakuten Eagles are apparently interested in him.

The necessary paperwork will likely be filed some time next week.

Nikkan Sports is reporting that Hiromoto Okubo could return to coaching next season.  According to the report, Okubo has received a number of offers from teams looking for batting coach instructors.  One of the teams is apparently the Rakuten Eagles.

Okubo is currently in the middle of a lawsuit with the Seibu Lions.  With the possibility of returning, he is said to be thinking about dropping the suit.

UPDATE @ 5:38pm - Okubo spoke to reporters today at his home and said, "I haven't gotten any official offer yet, but since I was thinking that I'd be able to return to baseball again, just hearing of these kinds of things makes me really happy.  I'm grateful."

He then added, "Right now, I'm focused on teaching the kids at my baseball school.  If I were to get an offer, I would certainly take it into consideration."

UPDATE 10/5 @ 10:40am - Nikkan Sports clarifies why Okubo might drop his lawsuit against the Seibu Lions with the following quote from Okubo himself:

If I get a coaching offer, it means there are people out there that don't think my methods are wrong.  There's nothing more that can help restore my image than that.  And that would also means it no longer makes sense [to continue forward with the lawsuit].

With regards to the Seibu Lions and the possibility of returning to baseball as a coach:

We had our differences of opinion in coaching styles.  I also made some mistakes. ... If I can make a return to coaching, I'd like to take all my past experiences, including the bad ones, make whatever changes that need to be changed, and do my best to give back [to the team for taking a risk].

The third oral proceedings in Hiromoto Okubo's lawsuit against the Seibu Lions took place at the Tokyo District Court today.  The Okubo camp team once again requested that the Lions produce the recordings they took during their internal investigations as evidence for the trial.

The proceedings will now move toward the consideration of witnesses for either side.  Okubo's lawyer told reporters that the young players Okubo allegedly victimized (like Yusei Kikuchi) would be important for their case.

UPDATE 6/28 @ 2:10pm - the recordings the Lions have apparently contain interviews with about 40 or so players (not sure if that includes staff).

The second round of hearings for Hiromoto Okubo's lawsuit against the Seibu Lions was held today at the Tokyo district court.  According to a number of reports (like Sanspo, Daily Sports, Nikkan Sports, Jiji Press), the Okubo camp is asking that the Seibu Lions turn over their audio recordings of the internal investigations they conducted in July 2010.

Said Okubo's lawyer, "We want to take a closer look at how [the Lions] arrived at terminating [my clients] contract.  We think that there might be a difference in the interpretation of facts."

See also:

First round of hearings in Hiromoto Okubo’s lawsuit took place on Monday

Seibu Lions receive a legal brief from Hiromoto Okubo

Hiromoto Okubo sues Seibu Lions for wrongful termination

The first round of hearings in Hiromoto Okubo's lawsuit against the Seibu Lions took place on Monday at the Tokyo District Court.  Okubo did not show up at the hearing and instead had his lawyer take care of business.

Okubo's lawyer - "We will not falter, we boldly will stand behind our claims."

Seibu Lions' lawyer - "The reputation of the club and the reputation of one our players are being damaged.  We will take a strong stance to make sure we protect both the club and our player and we will be clear in our statements."

The Seibu Lions announced today that they received a legal brief from Hiromoto Okubo on Monday claiming that the team owed him money (various compensation fees).

Said Lions managing director Noriaki Iida, "[A similar suit was rejected in the courts already], I don't know why they're continuing to push this.  We will take a strong stance on this. ... [Hiroki] Okubo is using a portion of the media to talk about his side of the story.  We feel strongly that he is defaming the name of both the Seibu Lions and [Yusei] Kikuchi. ... We will protect Kikuchi's name."

See also:

Hiromoto Okubo sues Seibu Lions for wrongful termination

Hiromoto Okubo filed a wrongful termination suit against the Seibu Lions at the Tokyo District Court on Thursday and is claiming 21,263,000 yen in damages.

Okubo claims that he was never given a reason for his termination from the team and was never given an opportunity to tell his side of the story.  He also claims his reputation took a hit because of the termination.

Team president Shinji Kobayashi told reporters that he hasn't heard anything yet and that it's business as usual.

Okubo filed a provisional disposition claim (defamation) against the Lions last year, but it was rejected by both the Tokyo District Court and Tokyo High Court.

UPDATE @ 11:40am - Okubo's camp is apparently claiming the violent actions taken by Okubo should be considered justifiable because they were within the range of acceptable behavior for coaches and could end up calling Yusei Kikuchi as a witness.

Hiromoto Okubo's Dave Baseball Academy opened on Thursday.  While that isn't really big news, I found it interesting that Hisanobu Watanabe and Yasuyuki Kataoka ended up attending the opening, despite all the problems that took place between the two sides.  I guess the two sides were able to bury the hatchet (or maybe Watanabe and Kataoka weren't directly involved).

The Seibu Lions informed the media on Tuesday that the Tokyo High Court rejected Hiromoto Okubo's appeal on the 28th.

Okubo filed a defamation and lost wages suit against the Seibu Lions after being let go by the team earlier this year in July.  The Lions claimed that they uncovered enough proof to fire Okubo after their internal investigation confirmed that he hit a player (later revealed to be Yusei Kikuchi).  Okubo's suit was initially dismissed by the Tokyo district court in November and the appeal was rejected by the Tokyo High Court on the 28th.

An unnamed Seibu Lions' PR rep told reporters that what Okubo did was something that couldn't be forgiven and that the courts have now confirmed the team made the right decision.