From Rakuten / baseball team president to rotating sushi New wind blows in the restaurant industry February 2nd 17:01

From the president of the professional baseball team Rakuten to the president of a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

Yozo Tachibana made an unusual change last year.

When he was president of the baseball team, Mr. Tachibana attracted attention for his flexible ideas, such as installing a Ferris wheel in the stadium.

Is it possible to breathe new life into the restaurant industry, which has been in a difficult situation due to the influence of the new corona?

He asked me what he thought of the challenge.

(Sendai Broadcasting Station Reporter Shihori Fujioka)

Why did you become the president of a conveyor belt sushi restaurant?

Yozo Tachibana is 52 years old from Tokyo.

After working at a foreign-affiliated securities company, he served as president of the professional baseball team Rakuten for nine years from 2012 to 2021.

And in April last year, he became the president of Kaisen Sushi Shiogama Port, a conveyor belt sushi restaurant headquartered in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture.

The impetus was when Hideya Kamata, chairman (former president) of the conveyor belt sushi restaurant, approached Mr. Tachibana, who was a regular at the restaurant, to become president.

Yozo Tachibana:

"The chairman (of my current company) told me to do it, and I thought, 'That sounds like fun.'

Chairman Kamata said, ``I was looking for someone to take charge of the management of the restaurant because of my age. About two months after I was approached, it was decided that I would be the president."

From the president of the baseball team to the president of a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

It was his passion for Tohoku and Miyagi, which he had been involved with for a long time as president of the baseball team, that supported his unusual turnaround.

Mr. Yozo Tachibana

"For 10 years, I was able to play with the Eagles, and until then I had no connection or connection with Sendai. Also, the sushi market is big, and the eating out market is also big.Therefore, I thought that I had to do something about tourism in Sendai.I thought that if I made the Shiogama Port brand bigger, maybe tourists would come. I'm so excited about that."

continue to meet customer needs

In 2013, the year after Mr. Tachibana became president of the team, Rakuten achieved its long-cherished wish of becoming number one in Japan.

During his tenure as president, he promoted the "Ballpark Concept," which aims to create a ballpark where families can enjoy baseball together, just like in the American Major League Baseball.

Flexible ideas such as changing the ground from artificial turf to natural turf and setting up a Ferris wheel and accommodation facilities on the grounds of the stadium so that more people can enjoy it. was noticed.

Mr. Tachibana says that his experience as a baseball team president, who worked to get as many people as possible to visit the stadium, is also being used in the management of the conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

Yozo Tachibana

"When I became president (of the team), the average number of customers was about 14,000. In 2019 before Corona, it was about 23,000. One game increased by 10,000 people. When it comes to how we increased the number, we did a lot of different things: Elementary school students had fun, junior high school students had fun, high school students had fun, office workers, working people, the elderly, who came. I wanted to make something fun, so I did a lot of things.”

Mr. Yozo Tachibana

``The accumulation of each and every item has paid off, and the number of customers has increased somehow.It was fun for me. I realized that if I keep doing what I do, customers will come to me, so I was really glad that I tried it, and I think that experience is alive and well this time.”

Life is short, just make mistakes and fix them

I would like more people to taste the taste of this restaurant, which has a reputation for serving large pieces of fish freshly landed at the port at reasonable prices.

In October last year, half a year after taking office as president, the second store opened at the east exit of Sendai Station.

In the new store, Mr. Tachibana's ideas are reflected everywhere.

One of them is the provision of counter seats without sushi lanes.

The counter seats are curved to make it easier for the people sitting there to have a conversation.

Mr. Yozo Tachibana

``If you want to catch new customers in a new price range, you have to take on a new challenge, so basically it's a store where you want families to come and relax, but if you want to be a little more fashionable, When I want to eat something a little more expensive, I think it would be fun to have a space like this.”

A TV is installed in the store, being conscious of families.

A nursing room is also provided.

My own experience that I felt that there were no shops or nursing rooms where I could go with my child led to this initiative.

“It is the customers who decide what kind of place they want the store to be,” says

Tachibana.

I want to flexibly change the store that I have opened once, while watching the reactions of customers.

In the future, I would also like to challenge a completely new type of store.

Mr. Yozo Tachibana:

"Right now, I'm trying high-end, just a little high-end, but I'm thinking of a completely different business model in the future. I want to do it when I think about it, and if I fail, I can quit. Life is short, so I think it's better to fail.

" I want to do something I haven't done before.I want to open a store staffed only by women, and there are many things I want to do."

In the future, in addition to expanding the number of stores in Japan, we aim to expand overseas within five to ten years.

Mr. Yozo Tachibana

"When I was entrusted with this company, I wanted to show everyone a new world. I thought that the new world would be Sendai, New York, San Francisco, Hawaii, and so on. So, within 5 to 10 years, I want to open a store in New York, etc. If I count backwards, I'll open a store in Sendai, Tokyo, Yokohama, and so on. We don't have much time to go there, so we have to hurry. I want to open two stores in Tokyo this year."

Miyagi only has potential

“My current goal is to revitalize the region,”

said Mr. Tachibana.

Through her business, she hopes to convey the charm of Tohoku and Miyagi to more people and lead to the revitalization of the region.

Yozo Tachibana

"Miyagi has only potential. First of all, the people are really wonderful. They are really graceful, orderly, polite, and modest. But I think this modesty is the most amazing, but this is also a great advantage. It is also a weakness at the same time.I want to ignite this.Maybe Miyagi has more great treasures than you think, but I haven't been able to convey the charm.For example, if you come to Sendai, eat beef tongue. I think it's Sendai's culture, but the best tuna in Japan is at Shiogama Port, so I want to create a culture where people eat sushi first when they come to Sendai. , I want to make it a tourist town where you can't get a hotel."

At the end of the interview, when I asked Mr. Tachibana what kind of year he would like to have in 2023, he said, "There have been many dark news in the past few years, so I want to make it a year full of smiles in the city."

In the past few years, the food and tourism industry has been in a tough situation due to the corona misfortune.

I can't take my eyes off for a while to see if they can bring in a new wind with their innovative ideas that are not bound by common sense.

Sendai Broadcasting Station Reporter

Shihori Fujioka

Joined in 2022

Responsible for life and economic coverage