Mitsunori Ota, Managing Director, Section Eight Co., Ltd.

Improving the quality and quantity of "encounters" through creativity

Senior Managing Director, Section Eight Co., Ltd.　Mitsunori Ota(Ota Mitsunori)

■ Profile
Born in March 1975 in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture.
After graduating from university, he joined a specialized trading company in 1997. In 2002, he joined Rains International Co., Ltd. (operating Gyukaku, Onyasai, etc.). He gained experience as a store manager, manager, and division chief at the company, and served as the business manager of Kamadoka. In March 2011, he joined Section Eight Co., Ltd. He became a director at the company in June 2014, and a senior managing director at the company in June 2016.

Section Eight Co., Ltd. provides meeting places such as "Aiseki-ya" (a table where people can share tables). The reason they are able to carry out many unique initiatives based on "meetings" is because they are adventurous and not limited to a specific business model. We spoke to the company's Managing Director, Mitsunori Ota, about his career, as well as the company's strengths and management strategy.

During my time at university, I worked part-time at about three different jobs, including a restaurant, park management, and retail, and my school life revolved around part-time work. I was managing on my scholarship with no financial support from home, so I felt the need to earn money. I was put in charge of the part-time job, and did a variety of tasks, such as organizing shifts and ordering ingredients, and I think these experiences are still useful to me today.
I finished job hunting in my fourth year of university and even attended training for those who had received job offers, but I ended up repeating the year. Because my graduation was delayed, I started job hunting again and got a job as a sales representative at a dealership selling surveying equipment and copiers in my hometown of Chiba, where I worked for about five years. While my previous part-time jobs often involved team activities, sales was mainly an individual sport. Since I didn't feel much of a sense of accomplishment, I decided to change jobs.
At that time, I remembered my experiences as a student and thought, "I found the restaurant business interesting," so I joined Rains International, the company behind Gyukaku, Onyasai, and Kamadoka, as a regular employee. After working as a store manager, manager, and division chief, I was able to reach the position of general manager.
Later, when the company was bought out by a fund and its direction changed, I was introduced to Section Eight Co., Ltd. At the time, the brand power of "Izakaya Hanako" was so strong that although the business performance was good, the management ability was not keeping up, so I focused on turning it around step by step, such as educating managers and establishing corporate governance.
Since then, we have developed various business models and have come to the present day.
I think the reason I've been able to get this far is because I love my work. I think that promotion is the dynamism of an office worker, but I've always worked with the belief that my hobby is my job. The quality of my work is important, but I believe that unless I do a lot of work, the quality of my productivity and efficiency won't improve.

■ Think of encounters as a pyramid

Our company has three main business types: "The Public Stand," where you can enjoy free style; "Aiseki-ya," where employees will match you up and if you don't get along you can change seats; and "THE SINGLE," a one-on-one, members-only shared seating bar for those looking for serious relationships, which is linked to apps and other means.
The strength of "THE SINGLE" is that while many people today meet through dating apps, it's often difficult to know who's right for you, and it can take a long time from contact to meeting, which can be exhausting. Our service automatically meets people when you come to the bar, and you can share a table with about four or five people at a time, which I think is its strength. What's more, with the "THE SINGLE" app, after sharing a table, you rate each other on a score, which is different from regular dating apps. We will not allow people with low scores to enter the bar.

■ Lower the barrier to entry and increase the number of encounters

What sets us apart from other stores is that we collaborate with restaurants such as Gindaco, GoGo Curry, and Yakiniku Like, and we strive to make our store accessible so that customers can feel like they're at an event. Another feature is that we have a wide range of customers. What sets us apart from matchmaking apps and marriage agencies is the number of encounters we have. We believe that "if you increase the number of encounters, you're sure to find a good one," and we are committed to not only the quality of encounters, but also the quantity of encounters, which is what sets us apart from other stores.

You might think that we have a reputation for hitting the mark with our business models, but we have actually scrapped and rebuilt 38 brands in the past.Recently, we have launched new businesses such as KARAOKE HUNDRED, which gives away 10 yen worth of gift certificates to use at our stores if you score 100 points in karaoke, and THE SHISHA HOUSE, which sells shisha water pipes.
I would like to work with adventurous and creative people who are always questioning things and coming up with new suggestions, such as "Wouldn't this be better?"
My goal for the future is to increase the number of encounters between people. I'm not particular about the business model, so I want to continue doing interesting things based on encounters and grow Section Eight.

■Message

I feel like my student days are similar to qualifying for F1 motorsports. In F1, the starting order for the final is determined by the qualifying results, so it's difficult for someone with a slow qualifying time to win the final. On the other hand, if you get pole position in qualifying, your chances of winning the final increase. In the same way, think of your current student years as a preparation period before entering the workforce - in F1, it's like qualifying, and when you enter the workforce, it's like the final. And I think it's important to think of the competition as already beginning and to work hard at each task. Nothing will come from doing things half-heartedly, so I think it's best to work hard at everything, confident that "this will definitely lead to something in the future."

Interview with Student Newspaper Online on November 1, 2023 by Shiori Ohno, a second-year student at Sophia University Junior College