Prologue: Roppongi

Roppongi is a beautiful town. It’s the center of Minato City in Tokyo and is oftentimes deemed crudely luxurious and rich, which I think is untrue. But anyways, that was where I had a meeting with two great sports executives last September, around ten o’clock in the morning, with sweat running down my back.

All this began with my interest in the world of sports management. As a boy who gave up on becoming an athlete, I needed somewhere else where I could still pursue sports, which turned out to be sports management. Once I noticed this, the next thing I sought was an opportunity, one that was close, in-person, and intensive.

Internship. That was the answer that popped up in my head.

Roughly, this is where one of those two great sports execs showed up. Her name is Tomo Ikezawa: CEO of TOTAL WORKOUT, a trailblazing Japanese female personal trainer, creator of a unique training method called Body re-Tuning®, official trainer for Miss Universe Japan, Miss Earth Japan, and Miss Japan for years, and Retail Director of goop Japan.

If I had to add one more element to her gorgeous portfolio, it would be the fact that she’s also been my mother’s personal trainer for years. Accordingly, Mrs. Ikezawa had actually known me since I was little. As mentioned, she was the pioneer of personal training in Japan, which is another type of sports management, stimulating my instinct. I reached out to her through my mother and had a brief meeting in early August. At the end of the meeting, she noted that she could introduce me to a man called Daiki Tanaka for more internship information and connections.

The lineup was set. The other person among the two great sports execs was Daiki Tanaka: former announcer at Fuji TV covering the Vancouver 2010 and Rio 2016 Olympics, founder of Inflight Inc., IOC Venue MC for Tokyo 2020—blending media, business consulting, and CSR projects, and driving initiatives that connect the worlds of sports and business.

After that first meeting, I also begged her to coordinate another one among the three of us. She kindly accepted my request, setting the venue as TOTAL WORKOUT Roppongi, which finally leads to my hook.

The date was September 8th, and I can still vividly recall that thirty-minute talk. Mr. Tanaka was unexpectedly kind and approachable—I had expected someone more majestic, somewhat aloof, whatever prejudice I had about successful people. He articulated his experience as a college baseball player, his career as an announcer, and his present work. His insight gave me perspectives different from what Mrs. Ikezawa told me, showing new ways to approach the game of sports and manage it as a business.

He was really well-connected in the sports industry, so for any topic I brought up, he had a profound answer. He was the same when I asked him about internships, which became the moment the sound of Fanatics Japan first captivated my ears.

“Already told him, just shoot an email! Heard they’re doing an internship too."

That was what he left in our group chat, along with the email address of Masanori Kawana, managing director of Fanatics Japan.

I felt truly blessed. I immediately emailed him and got a quick response.

“You should swing by the office sometime. Let’s grab lunch or tea.”

I smirked, excited for what was ahead of me.

On my way home, I went on the internet, looking up the word Fanatics.

Plural form of fanatic, meaning a person with an obsessive interest in and enthusiasm for a particular activity.

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This chapter is entirely written by Genki Kano. Any information disclosed in this blog related to Tomo Ikezawa and Daiki Tanaka has been generously approved by them for public sharing. Once again, I’d like to take this column to express my gratitude toward those two wonderful people for making this internship possible. Nothing discussed onward would be complete without them. This prologue is dedicated to them.

Stay tuned for the next chapter: Masanori Kawana.