Earlier this year, we saw a grand performance from Kakeru, at the time part of IBSG, as he took the championship at Capcom Cup 11 and he went on to sign up with Zeta Division for Street Fighter League Pro-JP’s 2025 season.
However, at Esports World Cup 2025 the champion withdrew from the competition midway through citing health issues which at the time were believed to be food poisoning, though since then he has remained absent for two whole months from Street Fighter League Pro-JP. Today, an announcement was made regarding Kakeru’s fighting game future and unfortunately, the news is not good.
The first announcement came from Zeta Division themselves, Kakeru’s current sponsor, in a post on their website. It was written in Japanese, but I will translate parts of it below.
“Due to neurological dysfunction, Kakeru will be stepping down from the Zeta Division roster for the 6th season of Street Fighter League and be replaced by Yamaguchi”, reads the statement.
Since replacing a team member mid-season in this manner is unprecedented, it’s also explained that Zeta|Yamaguchi will only be allowed to serve as the reserve player on the team and not take part in any of the main roster matches, but only tiebreakers.
As for Kakeru himself, he soon made his own post on X where he clarified from his own perspective. This was of course also written in Japanese and will be embedded below, following a full translation into English by myself.
ご報告
いつも温かいご声援、本当にありがとうございます。
この度、ZETA DIVISIONから発表がありました通り、私はeスポーツ選手としての活動を引退することを決断いたしました。
突然の活動休止から約2カ月が経過してしまいました。…
— ZETA Kakeru(翔) (@Kakeru_FGC) October 23, 2025
Announcement
Thank you truly for all of your warm support you have given me.
As the announcement from Zeta Division stated, I have decided that I will be retiring from esports competition activities.
It has been two months since my sudden hiatus. I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart for causing all of you worry and concern by not being able to share any details regarding my condition during this time.
The reason for my hiatus, which is “neurological dysfunction” has continued and it’s gotten to a point where continuing as a competitor would be difficult. I have been in discussions with my team as to the possibility of my future activity, but I have now made the judgment myself that continuing as a competitor would be hard and decided to retire. My team put my health as its utmost priority and respected my decision.
Leaving the Street Fighter League roster mid-season fills me with feelings of remorse for not only my teammates but also all of my fans who have eagerly been awaitng my return.
I have in fact only been able to continue as a competitor for as long as I have thanks to the earnest encouragement from my fans, the unwavering support of my wife, the staff at Zeta Divsion and my teammates who I practiced and battled together with. All of these voices have reached me and made the time which I put in as an esports competitor an irreplacable treasure to me.
As was said in the announcement, I will be leaving Zeta Division within this year and put my full focus on recovering my health.
From the bottom of my heart, I wish good luck to the newly added teammate Yamaguchi as well as my other teammates in the second half of Street Fighter League.
This will be the end, but truly, truly thank you to everyone who has supported the esports player “Kakeru”.
It would make me happy to see everyone continue supporting Zeta Division moving forward.
-Kakeru
Following this, a statement was also released by the Capcom Fighters X account which announced that Kakeru has withdrawn from Capcom Cup 12 and that his qualifying spot, which he earned by winning Capcom Cup 11, will be going to AngryBird who placed 4th in the competition.
You can see Capcom Fighters’ X post below.
We would like to inform our community that Kakeru, representing ZETA DIVISION, has officially withdrawn from CAPCOM CUP 12.
This decision was made following a formal request from the player, which has been respectfully accepted. In accordance with the CAPCOM Pro Tour 2025… https://t.co/aiyaVGt1rD
— Capcom Fighters (@CapcomFighters) October 23, 2025
We here at EventHubs want to thank Kakeru for the amazing performances he has shown us during his Street Fighter career and wish him the best of luck in his recovery.