午夜剧场

I am taking on the challenge of a baseball business called the Winter League, something that has never existed in Japan before.

I was a member of the Juku baseball club, but as an inexperienced player, I could not win the competition among over 200 members and never made it onto the bench once in four years. While my teammates were excelling at Meiji Jingu Stadium, my four years ended with me just biting my lip and watching the field from the stands, thinking, "Just you wait and see."

After the 午夜剧场-Waseda series in the fall of my senior year, I retired from the baseball club, but my feelings for baseball, which I thought I had settled, began to bubble up again. In the midst of this, I learned about a stage called the Winter League in California and decided to participate. The Winter League is a tryout league where about 200 players from across the United States gather for a month-long league season with equal opportunities to appeal to MLB and independent league scouts. Although I had almost no game experience during my university years, I achieved satisfying results, such as hitting a home run to the opposite field. I wasn't scouted, but by gaining practical experience and being able to demonstrate the results of my hard work, my smoldering feelings were finally laid to rest in California.

After that, I chose to live as a businessman and started my own company after working at Fast Retailing for five years. I thought about what I could truly want to change in the world from the bottom of my heart, and I decided to take on the challenge of starting a Winter League in Japan. Through this business, what I want to achieve is to create a stage for players who feel frustrated like I did or who need a practical environment, and to make it a success as a business.

"Shining a light on places that do not see the sun." Many supporters have gathered under this mission. We have team members with top-level techniques and passion in Japan, as well as supporters from various fields. Together with these colleagues, I want to raise the level of the baseball world, act with leadership that leads the global baseball world, and turn this league into a culture.

In our second year, fiscal 2023, a total of 101 players from 11 countries participated, and over 20 signed professional contracts, making it a great success as a tryout league. We will create a gateway in Okinawa where players from all over the world gather in Japan and then take flight to the rest of the world.