{"id":18174,"date":"2018-08-30T16:34:01","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T07:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/oih2026\/?post_type=library&p=18174"},"modified":"2026-09-27T18:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T09:23:09","slug":"nakanotomoya","status":"publish","type":"library","link":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/en\/library\/nakanotomoya\/","title":{"rendered":"Tomoya Nakano"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From an exploitative company to unemployment, then to business school<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Of the roughly 700,000 university students who graduate each year, about 140,000 graduate without a job offer, and about 200,000 quit shortly after joining a company because \u201cit\u2019s not right for me.\u201d Companies invest in training them in advance, but a common worry is that they quit just when they seem to have become an asset. Tomoya Nakano of i-plug stood up to resolve this mismatch between companies and students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nakano graduated from university in 2001, in the middle of the employment ice age. In June after graduating, Nakano joined a job advertising company mid-year, but it was an exploitative company where even bathroom breaks had to be written in the daily report. Nakano quit right away and spent 10 months unemployed. Nakano then joined another job advertising company, but ranked last out of 600 salespeople in western Japan, a miserable result. Nakano looks back on that time as \u201crock bottom.\u201d Working from early morning until late at night to somehow climb out, Nakano reached average results two years later and top-class sales results seven years later, but the Lehman shock caused work to plunge. With \u201cnothing to do\u201d after work, Nakano went to classes at a business school, and started i-plug with two peers met there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A business plan that suddenly came to mind when cornered<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

i-plug started out with a placement business for new graduates, but its sales efforts went nowhere. Unable to win any contracts at all, the team was cornered: \u201cAt this rate we\u2019ll go bankrupt. This is bad!\u201d That was when the business plan that became the prototype of OfferBox suddenly came to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OfferBox is a service specialized in new graduates that lets companies send offers directly to students. Companies can search the information of registered students and efficiently contact students they want to meet, with the advantage that it is completely success-based, free to use up to an informal job offer. Students, for their part, can post their self-promotion not only as text but also as videos, photos, research slides, and more, making it easier to convey their appeal, so they can receive offers from companies they never expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, there was no placement service with this \u201coffer-based \u00d7 success fee\u201d model, and judging that \u201cthis can set us apart from other companies,\u201d the i-plug members listened to 200 students and 100 companies and built a system that directly reflected what they heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A business plan they were sure would succeed: meeting peers with the same ambition and even enjoying adversity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

OfferBox prepared for launch in high spirits, but a big wall suddenly stood in the way. Just before OfferBox\u2019s release, a major staffing company started a similar service and launched a large-scale promotion with TV commercials and national newspapers. Against a rival with huge funds and organizational strength, i-plug was just three people, at an overwhelming disadvantage. The launch was full of anxiety, but on the first day, 208 students from well-known national universities registered, and it turned into conviction: \u201cThis will work!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, because of the success-based nature of the service, money does not come in right away. At one point, Nakano\u2019s assets, company and personal savings combined, were just 90,000 yen. Even in such a tough situation, Nakano says there was confidence that this business would definitely succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew there was a path to the summit of success. I just couldn\u2019t see the distance. It felt like walking toward a small light far away in the dark. I didn\u2019t know how long I had to keep going to reach success, but I had to be getting closer to the goal. Besides, I had experienced rock bottom: living unemployed and ranking last out of 600 at a job advertising company. Compared with then, I didn\u2019t think this was a big deal, and above all, I thought I was extremely lucky just to have met wonderful peers, partners for life you could say, and started a business with them. I don\u2019t think anyone is more fortunate than me. I\u2019m an optimist by nature (laughs),\u201d Nakano said, showing a toughness that can enjoy adversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wanting to resolve the mismatch between students and companies<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today, among job sites for new graduates, OfferBox has an overwhelming share of the offer-based segment. It has grown to be used by 4,250 companies, with more than 100,000 registered students, about one in four new graduates. Although it has established a certain position in the industry, Nakano says there is no satisfaction with the status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn usage, we are still far behind the two major job sites, and the percentage of young people who quit shortly because of job-hunting mismatches has hardly changed from 20 years ago; we have not yet changed the market environment. We want to listen to companies and students, make improvements, raise our share, and pursue our philosophy of \u2018resolving the mismatch between students and companies,\u2019\u201d Nakano said of the goals ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What separates people who succeed from those who don\u2019t is \u201chow much they act\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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While growing i-plug\u2019s business strongly, Nakano also works hard to support entrepreneurs. One example is Nishinaka Valley, a nonprofit group of business owners based around Nishinakajima who are eager to change Osaka, Kansai, Japan, and the world, which Nakano leads. It holds networking events several times a month and a business plan contest as a big event every six months, and Nakano personally gives one-on-one advice on things such as introductions to financial institutions and drafting business plans that can win loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We asked Nakano for a message to people aspiring to start businesses. \u201cWhat separates people who succeed from those who don\u2019t is \u2018how much they act.\u2019 Nothing comes from just worrying because you\u2019re afraid of failing. Any business is fine to start with; just get moving, meet many people, talk about what you are thinking and doing, and as you keep moving while making corrections, you will find a plan that succeeds.\u201d It is a persuasive message of encouragement typical of Nakano, who never stopped walking even in hard times and got the business on track while enjoying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interview date: July 27, 2018
(Interview and text: Isshin Ohashi)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3846,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/oih2026\/?post_type=library&p=3990","catch_copy":"Just moving steadily toward success one step at a time: even a steep road doesn\u2019t feel hard","company":"i-plug, Inc.","sub_catch":""},"library-category":[30,28],"class_list":["post-18174","library","type-library","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","library-category-it","library-category-aplication","en-US"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library\/18174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/library"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"library-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library-category?post=18174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}