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Some people have left Tokyo to enjoy a “second life.” Kunio Kurihara, an executive officer of Kirin Holdings, retired early at the age of 56 and became the “general manager of the baseball club” at Nagasaki International University. The main job of the general manager is not to teach baseball, but to find a place for students to work. Why didn’t Mr. Kurihara aim for further career advancement? Journalist Daisuke Akiba approaches.
* This article is a reissued version of “The Second Life Learned from Successful Examples of Lifeshift 10” by Daisuke Akiba (Bungei Haruaki).
Photo provided = Literary Spring and Autumn
Kunio Kurihara, who retired from Kirin Holdings and became the general manager of the Nagasaki International University Baseball Club.
I had a dream of “I want to get involved with young people in sports”
One of my acquaintances became the director of a yacht club at his alma mater university after retiring from a major company. So when an acquaintance first told me that “a person who became CEO of Kirin Brewery, a major brewing company, oversees the baseball club in Nagasaki,” I was not surprised.
However, while listening to the details, I was suddenly interested. This is because the person in question, Kunio Kurihara, deliberately withdrew from Kirin early to fulfill his dream of “I want to get involved with young people in sports.” Mr. Kurihara was born and raised in Tokyo, and I was also interested in the fact that Nagasaki, who is the director of the baseball club, was originally an unconnected land.
When I flew to Nagasaki for coverage, it took Mr. Kurihara an hour to pick me up from my home in Sasebo and take me to the airport by car. I’m sorry I took over from the stranger who suddenly contacted me saying “I want to cover it and write an article”, but even though I went there with the intention of interviewing, “Is this your first time at Sasebo?” I’ll show you everything, “and the kindness that took me to the highlights of Sasebo City made me sick.
Clubhouse Covered Practice Area … Lots of New Equipment
After finishing the tourist information, Mr. Kurihara took me to his current place of work, Nagasaki International University. We were guided to a baseball field with a beautiful green artificial grass in the gardens. It is said to have been made according to the foundation of the hardball baseball club in 2015.
The clubhouse was completed in 2016. In 2017, a 1,200 square meter covered practice area was completed with a pitching machine for batting practice and a mound for pitching practice. From the fact that the facilities are developing at a rapid pace, it is clear how Nagasaki International University is targeting the hardball baseball club.
The Dougouts and rear screens will be made on the ground in the future. “What is it like? I don’t think there are many universities with such wonderful facilities.” On this day, hardball baseball club practice is closed. Mr. Kurihara said it while playing catch with the perpetrator on the ground where there were no limbs.
When I asked him while returning the ball, “I am rewarding and responsible as a manager,” he responded with the ball, “I am not the manager, but the CEO.” Kurihara continued, perhaps because he thought he was “bigger than the director.”
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