Acusty co., ltd

RYO AOTANI

CEO & President

I was born in 1973 during the peak of the second baby boom. I started my career in management consulting in 2022. As a child, I did not get along well with my school teachers, classmates, or parents. I couldn't agree with any of them, and even though I knew in my head that “if I memorize my textbooks and pass my tests, it would make them happy," but my heart refused to go along with it. I managed to go on to high school, but after failing to get into university for two years straight I left home and picked up a part-time job through a newspaper scholarship program which provided me with boarding and three square meals a day. I was quite satisfied with the fact that "I could get paid while staying physically active by delivering newspapers," and thought how happy I was to be able to do something that I am content doing.

At the age of 24, I got married, became a truck driver, and started working as a newspaper salesman. This seemed to suit me well, and by the time I was 30, I was able to provide a good life for my wife and children. However, after meeting with my father for the first time in a long time, the subject of taking over his company arose. I studied design, planning, and marketing intensively under the guidance of my father, who had started his own business after working for an advertising agency and was known to be a successful businessman. As a result, my work went very well and I began to enjoy it more and more.

But that's where I got carried away. My arrogant sensitivity affected my family life, and my wife and I struggled to get along. Even though I had been very grateful to my wife for supporting me since a young age, we divorced and the children came to live with me. My wife passed away shortly thereafter in 2011. Then came the earthquake. I had wondered what I was going to do under such circumstances, and after suffering from depression, I decided to quit work.

As fate would have it, I decided to start a life insurance business. It was a fresh start for me at the age of 39. Through my insurance business, I had more opportunities to talk with business owners, and came to understand the importance of their philosophies. I began thinking that I would like to work together with them to help promote such philosophies. I myself am a proprietor, but beyond that I am deeply interested in developing people more than in management itself. I have always had a strong inclination to remain a general manager, to support the boss, and to let him walk away with a win. I want people to succeed who have aspirations in areas that are not about immediate profit or loss. As the saying goes, “in body and spirit”, I want the maturity of a corporation to be proportionate to its economic balance. However, this is not always the case.

When the time comes for me to pass away, I want to be able to say that "it's a beautiful world”. I am sure that is what I have been seeking since childhood. I would like to live in a world where people are connected by trust, not by greed or doubt. The “de” in “design” means “to mark out”. In Japanese, it is the same character used in the word “rebuild”. Through my work in management consulting, I would like to encourage society to rebuild and dispel its current sense of entrapment, therein allowing us to design a world where people can once again meet their hopes in the future.

(Contents of 2024 February issue of the monthly magazine "PHP")