Genichi Tamatsuka: Appointed Chairman of the New Rugby League "League One"

In the first half of 2021, Kensuke Iwabuchi, the Executive Director of the Japan Rugby Football Union, asked me to become the co-chair of the establishment preparation committee because they were finally creating a new league.

Since this league is like starting a new company, I felt we should approach the launch with a completely different mindset. Unless we build a team while paying close attention to organizational management, it won't succeed. Since Shigetaka Mori, President of the Japan Rugby Football Union, and Mr. Iwabuchi shared the same awareness of the issues, they asked me to serve as Chairman.

However, since I was just about to take office as President of Lotte Holdings in June, I couldn't do things halfway. So, I asked them to build a solid system for on-site operations. While I can't be involved in daily operations, I can correct the course at key points, set strategies, and communicate as appropriate. That's why I requested Hajime Shoji to be the Executive Director.

Mr. Shoji is an extremely talented and capable person as a consultant. Since the team was formed with people experienced in management, such as Tokuya Ikeguchi (former Vice President of Misumi), I thought it would be possible if I served as Chairman with them as the base.

The biggest motivation was giving back to rugby. I think if I hadn't played rugby, I would have turned out to be a terrible person (laughs). Furthermore, making League One a success is very important for the entire rugby world, and I felt it was the last chance, so I felt I couldn't run away from it.

On the other hand, I became the President of Lotte Holdings around the same time, and Lotte is a company that has supported sports for a long time. We own the Chiba Lotte Marines, actively support winter skating, and sponsor local sports tournaments. Given that environment, and because I hate running away from a challenge, I accepted.

I am fully aware of the weight of the responsibility and the time constraints, but in management, I have always done things by building something from scratch when resources were lacking, so I want to do my best within the range of what I can do.

I believe the breakthrough of the Japan national team at the 2019 World Cup and the way the whole of Japan was so excited about rugby led to the new league.

In 2019, of course, the Japan national team players worked very hard, but rugby as a sport gained such broad empathy from the Japanese people. I think that's because concepts like "one for all" and the spirit of "no side" matched Japanese culture.

However, for that movement to be born, there was the "Miracle of Brighton" where we beat South Africa in the 2015 World Cup, and we made great strides during that period. Among those, I think a very big contribution came from the Sunwolves, the Japanese team that participated in "Super Rugby" from 2016 to 2020.

Mr. Watase and everyone else worked hard to create this platform. At first, they couldn't win easily, but the Japan national team was strengthened through repeated matches with truly strong global standard teams from the Southern Hemisphere, so I am extremely grateful to Mr. Watase.

In addition, going back, there were the thoughts of the people who built the base of the Top League from around 2000, and the predecessors who planned and realized bringing the Rugby World Cup to Japan. I believe the desire to never let this light go out is connected to League One.

The Top League was an organization within the Japan Rugby Football Union, but this league transfers the rights to promote those matches to the league. The decisive difference is that each team and the league take full responsibility for match management, ticket sales, and operations.

This is a Copernican shift; instead of relying entirely on the Japan Union, teams must use their own ingenuity to think about stadiums, ticket sales, and attracting crowds, and work together with the league to make the matches exciting. In a sense, we have burned our bridges and transitioned to that structure.

To that end, dividing roles and revising various regulations is important, but what is truly vital is the vision of "what League One aims for."

Specifically, how exciting the matches will become depends on the games starting in January, but I want to first treat the next three years as Phase 1 and build the business model during this time.

For example, we can integrate information on rugby fans from all over, create a database, and conduct marketing by sending timely information to those people. And a big issue is the stadium problem.

Panasonic is lucky because Kumagaya City is very positive about rugby, but most teams in the Kanto region struggle with stadiums. We must work with local governments to envision new forms of stadiums that can also be used for rugby. I think we need to keep creating success stories.

Therefore, as a new concept, we introduced the idea of "Business Co-creation Partners" to the league. This isn't just advertising like putting a logo sticker on a chest; it's about creating win-win businesses together through the potential content of rugby.

Currently, the NTT Group is the title partner, and companies like Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group are partners. For example, with video content, a system has been established to speed up project management, such as how NTT can deliver rugby content in an exciting way.

The feeling of giving back from people who played rugby is amazing. Even Mr. Shoji must have been making a lot of money in his previous job, but he gave that up to serve as Executive Director for League One full-time. There are many people like that.

I believe there is a huge opportunity for League One within Asia. There are three major leagues in the world—Super Rugby centered on Australia and New Zealand, the English Premiership, and the French Top 14—but there was a gaping hole in Asia.

Asia will be the global growth center of the world from now on, the population is large, and how we involve players and teams from the Asian region in the future will be significant.

Appealing to rugby fans while doing cross-border matches with strong teams from Europe and the Southern Hemisphere has great potential.

In League One, nearly 50 national team players from the world's Tier 1 powerhouse nations participate. Since the total number of caps for all of them is about 1,400, it averages out to nearly 30 caps per person, meaning very high-level players are distributed among the teams.

As for head coaches, 10 out of the 12 teams in Division 1 are foreigners who have experienced global standards. People like Robbie Deans (Panasonic Head Coach, former Australia Head Coach), Steve Hansen (Toyota Director, former New Zealand Head Coach), and Michael Cheika (NEC Director, former Australia Head Coach).

To win globally, it is very important for leaders who have fought globally to lead the organization and raise the level of the entire team's perspective. Having head coaches who coached Southern Hemisphere national teams and players with national caps in League One teams is a great asset. Young Japanese players are stimulated, and the level of the entire team rises. I think this can serve as a reference for Japanese companies that tend to be inward-looking.

Also, the sport of rugby itself provides many hints for how corporate organizations should be today. For major strategies and directions, the head coach and CEO set the policy, train according to it, and gather talent, but once the game starts, the field players make decisions flexibly based on their own professionalism.

In companies too, the uniqueness and sense of speed of the players who actually perform the duties, and the delegation of authority to the front lines, will be highly required of organizations from now on.

Ultimately, a company is also about teamwork, but what must not be misunderstood is that it is teamwork based on strong individuals. The best organization is one where individuals raise their level in their respective fields—sales if it's sales, product development if it's product development—and then solve problems toward a single goal. I think rugby has many innovations and hints for thinking about future organizations.

I think stages are necessary rather than going professional all at once like baseball. For example, professional baseball can play 143 games a year, with about 40 home games. They also have so-called exclusive regional operating rights for stadiums and can do business there. However, in League One, it's a maximum of 18 or 20 games. And you need about 50 people per team just for the players. There are those difficulties.

On the other hand, as sports content, as proven in 2019, it is very exciting and has a different kind of excitement from watching a baseball game for three hours.

Also, the parent companies of rugby teams are all distinguished global companies. Moreover, they have been supporting the teams for a long time since they were corporate rugby clubs, and there are quite a few executives and department heads who are former members of the rugby clubs. Since each company has various solutions and know-how, I think it would be very interesting if we can successfully create a business model that other sports don't have.

Currently, there are people with professional contracts as rugby players and people with contracts as company employees, but I think employees are also professionals. They play rugby desperately to raise the brand power and contribute to the parent company.

There are many people from rugby clubs who hold key positions in those companies. Even considering the second careers of athletes, in the case of rugby, people equipped with grit, teamwork, and communication skills return to work and can become managers, department heads, or executives in the future, so I think it's the best.

Keio inevitably faces the barrier of entrance exams. From high school, we look for kids who are good at rugby and can also work hard at their studies to some extent, and we work hard on recruiting, but there are limits.

In that case, I think it's important to raise the level from the affiliated schools like the Senior High School or the Keio Futsubu School, using the strength of integrated education. It's necessary to see how much we can collaborate with a sense of unity there. There is a rugby club even from the Yochisha Elementary School.

Koji Wada, who is currently the GM of the Keio University team, is going to become the full-time head coach of the Senior High School. I think this is a very good thing.

Also, in 2019, two international students from New Zealand joined. People say various things, but based on Yukichi Fukuzawa's philosophy, I believe Keio is exactly where we should play and spend daily life together with international students and learn from each other. It's a matter of how to make that a sustainable system.

To meet everyone's expectations, Keio rugby somehow needs to become a little stronger.

I think I would have had nothing if I hadn't played rugby. But I just don't want to go to Lake Yamanaka (laughs). The practice in our time was truly grueling. It probably wouldn't be allowed now, but we did that practice, and when I was a senior, we beat both Meiji and Waseda and won the championship with a perfect record in the league. Watase was a year behind because he studied abroad, and he even ended up becoming the national champion (laughs).

Was that so (laughs)? But the experience of being able to take down a giant elephant if you make an effort, even if you aren't great material, is incredibly significant.

My son is currently playing rugby at one of the affiliated schools, and the other day he came home crying after losing an important match. Scraping his knees and shedding tears of frustration with his teammates. You can never shed tears like that in e-sports. The world is becoming increasingly digital, but that's exactly why I think it's very important to get injured in real sports, to win and lose, and to cry with friends.

I am, of course, very grateful to the late Akio Ueda, who was the coach, but I think for Keio rugby, Shinzo Koizumi's words, "Practice makes the impossible possible," say it all.