Hey there! I'm Yoshinori Ono, CEO at Lasengle.
Welcome to my blog and thanks for dropping by!
38 years.
38 years ago, I was still a kid in uniform.
1985. The Hanshin Tigers, led by manager Yoshio Yoshida, aka "Monsieur," won their first Japan Series under the slogan 3F Baseball (Fresh, Fight, For The Team).
For 38 long years, the Hanshin Tigers Koshien Stadium wall has displayed one, solitary red victory V sign.
But now, finally, the thing we couldn't say for fear of jinxing, that thing, it's come back to Osaka after 38 years!!!
Which means, the Hanshin Tigers are the baseball champions of Japan!!
Forgive me while I stray a little with my blog this month.
November 5th.The day we'd all been waiting for.
Following in the footsteps of Yoshio Yoshida, the manager of the 1985 Hanshin Tigers championship team, 2023 Hanshin Tigers manager Akinobu Okada refused to let the words "victory" cross his lips during the season, referring to it only as "that thing" (or are in Japanese).
Some fun baseball trivia: Akinobu Okada, the 2023 Hanshin Tigers manager, was a player on the 1985 Hanshin Tigers team that won Japan's championship for the first time in the club's history. He's renowned as part of the legendary trio who formed the heart of the Tigers' powerful batting order in the 1980s. Okada, alongside Randy Bass and Masayuki Kakefu, became famous for their home run hits, and footage of them belting out home runs is a familiar sight on Japanese TV.
And now, 38 years later, that same Okada is the manager who has led the Hanshin Tigers to their second Japan Series championship.
The day after the championship game, November 6th, the Koshien Stadium wall was not the only wall that had some new additions.
Someone at the Lasengle office framed and hung top page spreads of the Hanshin Tigers victory. Now, it could just be a coincidence, but this new decor might have something to do with the fact that I, the Lasengle CEO, am a huge Hanshin Tigers fan.
Now that I think about it, at our monthly meetings, when talking about management and development policies, I did tend to find a way to draw parallels between Hanshin Tigers recent success, or the amazing trajectory they've been on this year. That might have given it away.
So, thanks to my not so subtle fan-love, when Hanshin Tigers finally got that thing they'd been chasing (i.e. winning the Central League), I got congratulation messages in my inbox from all over the company. And, when Hanshin Tigers went on to get that other thing (i.e. win the Japan Series), my inbox was flooded with congratulation messages again.
Okay, so maybe some of it is buttering up the boss, but I think it's more than that. It's because of the connections I've made between the club's progress and our team over the three years, and how I've tied (chained??) Hanshin Tigers' journey to ours in a really positive way, that has made everyone feel like they can share in this amazing victory. And that's a great thing for us!
Okay, well, that's enough of the Hanshin Tigers (for now!). Back to more work-related topics.
Earlier this month I went to Anime NYC in the US, where Fate/Grand Order hosted a booth ready to welcome all the Masters on the east coast.
This was my first time at Anime NYC, and it had a very different vibe to last month's New York Comic Con. The event is hosted by Crunchyroll, a US anime streaming company, so Japanese culture took center stage. I felt right at home, talking about both my work and my interests.
The FGO panel discussion was attended by lots of Masters. Their warm welcome and support was more than enough to help me face the bitter cold NY winter on my way back to the hotel.
I know I should probably dedicate more space to developments at Lasengle than baseball, but I can't give away anything about what we discussed while I was in the US...at least not yet. As soon as I'm able, I'll let you all know what we're planning here at Lasengle.
Until then!
Yoshinori X（Twitter）