After receiving word from our main banks that they would like to “forget the past” and have “constructive talks” regarding future transactions, we started plans in early October for a syndicated loan totaling 1.2 …

August 16th According to the lunar calendar, July is a time when the souls of the departed, demons and ghosts, return to this realm to wander about for a month, also known as “Ghost Month”. It slightly resembles the O-bon season of Japan, but differs in that it is not…

“By the way, I wanted to talk about what’s next after Singapore.” “After Singapore?” After confirming that we had received an emergency loan from the Okinawa Development Finance Corporation and had escaped another shortage of funds, I opened up to Okuno-san about what I was secretly planning for the next…

“It seems like OWNDAYS is on a roll these days. I hear your name come up quite often.” Bourbon Road, brimming with a Showa period atmosphere, known for its choice of small old fashion bars, is a short walk from the West Exit of Kamata Station in Ota Ward, Tokyo…

September, 2013 Though reckless as it might seem, Umiyama and I had seen promise in the smooth start of our new store in Singapore and used it as the reason to invest a total of roughly 200 million yen in two more new store locations. Very shortly after making this…

July 6th, 2013 Our first day went by like a whirlwind and the next day was upon us. …

July 5th, 2013 My pushy and unreasonable idea to open up a store in Singapore within two months’ time ended up causing all kinds of unexpected friction within the company and HQ office. On top of that, there was one more unexpected thing that wasn’t looking good for us. Since…

May, 2013 After finishing the last of the official paperwork needed to set up Owndays Singapore Pte Ltd, our first overseas company, we executed the tenancy agreement for the first store. The foundation for our very first store abroad was now set. We hadn’t let anyone know about the details…

March, 2013 Umiyama, Koga and I returned to Japan and went straight to the meeting room at HQ to quietly go over details and start making a concrete plan for our expansion to Singapore. However, we still had no store location and didn’t know where to start. The only thing…