Kakeru Announces Next Steps Following Esports Retirement

Capcom Cup 11 winner, Kakeru, has announced his plans for his future following his retirement from esports. 

In October 2025, it was announced that Kakeru will be retiring due to some health issues, and while the exact nature of the problem is unknown, he seems to be doing well now. 

In a statement on social media, Kakeru stated that he will be cutting himself off from esports completely following his retirement. This means he has no intention of becoming a streamer, commentator, or any other job within that sphere. 

He said, “Since time has passed without me making any clear statements about my future specific activities, I'd like to talk about my approach to activities going forward.

“First, I have no plans to get involved with games as a job or to work as a full-time streamer in the future.

“I'll continue to enjoy Street Fighter 6 as a single player from here on out too, but if I turned it into work, it wouldn't align with the way of engaging that I truly value.  

I'll resume streaming once things settle down, but I also have no plans to make streaming my livelihood.  

“As for YouTube videos, the ones from my pro days are currently set to private across the board due to complicated rights issues.

“As for me right now, during this hiatus from activities, I've been spending time reading books in various genres and doing research, and in the process, my desire to revisit the programming I did back in my working professional days has grown stronger; there are also many other genres where I want to learn and take on new things.  

“At the same time, I plan to keep posting on SNS and in other formats, but due to changes in my own mindset and lifestyle, it seems like there will be a lot more posts unrelated to games.

“If I've left things unsaid and ended up giving the impression of expecting a pro comeback or full-time streaming activities, I'm truly sorry.

“I hope you'll keep this in mind as my own way of approaching things”

This is looking to be a completely clean break from the world that made him a star. He truly was an impressive athlete and he will be missed.