Ch.5: Strategy Office

Note: This is Chapter Five, which follows the Ch.4: Welcome to Fanatics Japan. While it can be read on its own, it’s best enjoyed in order.

A team photograph of Strategy Office, taken at the showroom of the new office at Azabudai Hills (I was absent)

Strategy Office is where I have belonged at Fanatics Japan so far.

The office, according to Mr. Mizushima’s interview quoted on the Japanese recruitment site BIZREACH, ranges from actual business to back-end operations. On the business side, they mainly handle new partnership contracts and maximize current partners’ revenue. On the other end, in back-office operations, they manage mid- to long-term strategy for the entire company, settle budgets, maintain the fundamental system of this soaring company, and, given the recent surge in demand for and use of artificial intelligence, also foster digital transformation (DX) and AI integration.

Honestly, it would be tough to find any department at Fanatics Japan that the Strategy Office isn’t involved with. And this is precisely why I could experience such a wide variety of things in just one year.

Back on Day 3 at Fanatics Japan.

After feeling a bit overwhelmed, I returned to my desk to officially tackle my first assignment.

My first on-the-job training (OTJ) mentor was Yuumi Soo.

She had been a backend system engineer at Rakuten for about five years and joined Fanatics Japan two years ago. She had been on maternity leave since late August. Yuumi also has a high level of English proficiency—her husband is Chinese American, and she grew up attending high school in New York.

As mentioned in Chapter 3, we had trouble setting up my account for a complete working environment, so Yuumi logged into her account on my laptop to proceed with the work.

My initial assigned task was “QA,” she noted.

First, I needed to understand what kind of platform I put myself into to move forward. Let me name it system-X.

System-X is a shared digital platform within Fanatics where employees can supervise, register, and undertake the work of commodities and orders.  Essentially, it is the backbone of all products that appear in retail and online stores. At the Strategy Office, we manage and organize the system for smoother, more efficient operation.

QA stands for Quality Assurance, and as the name suggests, my job was to double-check. I reviewed systematic updates already executed in the system-X  test environment, bug fixes, and minor display tweaks. There are six stages before deploying each update in production: Developed in Progress, Completed, Stage, In QA, Ready for Production, and Done. Once I gave the go-ahead for these service updates, they flowed into production and ultimately impacted the customer experience. So, unlike the surface-level impression of this work—just double-checking—it carried a real sense of accountability.

QA was literally my first task that could contribute to the company, and even though I didn’t fully know what I was doing, Yuumi patiently supported me and answered all my questions. She was the one who taught me that asking questions at Fanatics Japan wasn’t difficult or intimidating.

Day 3 passed quickly while I was glued to system-X. The following days rolled by in a similar way. I felt really close to and appreciative of Yuumi. During that time, I also had a few one-on-one meetings with Mr. Mizushima to report what I learned each day through seemingly simple, repetitive work that actually meant a lot to me—experiences none of my friends could have at my age.

I was really fortunate to be supported by these two in my early days.

There are more people in the Strategy Office I want to introduce in this blog, but as those who supported and motivated me at the very beginning, I’ll highlight one more in this chapter: Daiki Morita, a.k.a. Morichicchi.

He is currently a graduate student at Waseda University and had interned at Fanatics Japan for two years. Being the closest to my age at that time, he felt like the older brother I never had. His supportive and approachable attitude helped ease my nerves whenever I visited the company.

After I spent some days learning system-X, he became my next mentor. What he taught me, and what I gained from working with him, will be featured in the next chapter.

Rewinding a little, there was Day 4. It was one of the most memorable days I had there.

Fanatics Japan routinely holds a firm-wide meeting called Town Hall. Day 4 was the first Town Hall of 2025. My task was to introduce myself in front of everyone as a new intern. Having been intimidated just by sending a message on Slack, I was even more nervous about speaking in front of a crowd.

Minutes before the Town Hall, Mr. Mizushima briefly reviewed what I was going to say and sent me out in front of everyone at Fanatics Japan. Even though many people were telecommuting, I counted roughly 60 or more on one floor. My heart was racing.

I grabbed the mic Mr. Kawana passed to me and introduced myself as planned, adding a little humor at the end. Mr. Mizushima and Morichicchi immediately gave positive feedback, with Morichicchi saying, “You’re good at speech.” It was a short moment, but it allowed me to introduce myself, and I finally felt I could proudly call myself “a part of Fanatics Japan.”

Strategy Office is my home at Fanatics Japan, and all my work and accomplishments circle back to here.

---

This chapter is entirely written by Genki Kano. Any disclosed information about people appearing in this story has been generously approved for public sharing.

Stay tuned for the next chapter: Relentlessly Feeling Worthless