#197 人生で役に立つ財産は失敗という経験 The Most Useful Asset in Life is the Experience of Failure

Ryosuke Sato 佐藤涼介

Title: Title: The Most Useful Asset in Life is the Experience of Failure

I interviewed Mr. Ryosuke Sato, who is further enrolled in a doctoral program after obtaining his MBA. He is working on rehabilitating children in need of life guidance through boxing and on employment issues for youth with special needs. Based on his experience in the Great East Japan Earthquake, he established a disaster educational organization and has been giving lectures all over Japan.

Mr. Sato was born and raised in the town of Rifu-cho, Miyagi Prefecture, by parents who are both teachers. It is a town that epitomizes the wonderful countryside of Japan. When he was enrolled in a 150-year-old elementary school, he walked to and from school along a path in the middle of rice paddies. He spent his childhood looking forward to watching movies once a year on a goza mat on the floor.

When he became a high school student, he had a yearning for the U.S. and wanted to study in the U.S. after entering college. Through his university's exchange program, he studied in Oregon in the U.S. for a year in 2012. There, he was shocked by the U.S. university and higher education system and the motivation of the students, and decided to come back again and returned to Japan.

After returning to Japan, he obtained a professional boxing license and a teaching license. After intense study, he studied at Marshall University in West Virginia in 2016. The good thing about a local university is that tuition and living expenses were low. In addition to his studies, he worked as a Graduate Assistant and Tutor, and also taught elementary school at a local International School.

In boxing, he practiced every morning and evening and competed in fights every month. In 2018 and 2019, he won the Golden Gloves regional tournament, became the Tri-state Regional Champion, and competed in the national tournament. He also competed in various other tournaments, including the Japanese National Sports Festival.

After obtaining his MBA, he moved to California and is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at Westcliff University under Assistant Professor Dr. Hirokawa, who was introduced in Sweet Orange Magazine in November 2021. Since this year, he has been teaching Business Principal and Multinational Management classes as well as an instructor at the University of the People. He has also established a company in Japan to employ young people with developmental disorders by running a campsite and providing house cleaning services. He founded the company as an opportunity for using his academic experience and knowledge, and he works as a boxing coordinator to connect Japan and the United States.

He also started an organization focusing on disaster education with the survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake, whom he has been supporting since the disaster, and to give lectures at junior high schools, high schools, and universities throughout Japan. There are plans to incorporate the organization and rebuild a community in the Okawa area of Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture. “We would like to start with a small café and then create a community where young people would want to live, including accommodations and restaurants,” he says. The organization is challenging this project as the first field to tackle issues such as population decline, aging, and depopulation, which are common problems in rural areas of Japan.　

What he wants to tell the young people who will be active in society in the future is that “The most useful asset in life is the experience of failure.” “It is my style to try anyway and desperately try to make up for it later, not whether I can do it or not,” he says. He believes that the biggest problem is to do nothing. If you do it until you succeed, you will not fail, so please repeat the try-and-error process.

A well-rounded person Mr. Sato is exactly who is good at both sports and studies.