Whether to buy or walk away.
An adviser who understands the business owner’s perspective.

I first met Kenji Yanagisawa through competitive amateur golf. In addition to playing rounds together, we have paired up in doubles tournaments and competed as a team. We did not originally meet through work; our relationship began as fellow golfers enjoying the same sport.

Golf has also given us a particularly memorable connection. I was playing in the same group when Kenji made his first-ever hole-in-one at Takanodai Country Club. Competing together in doubles and being there for his first hole-in-one are both special memories from our friendship on the course.

We also often compete in Tokyo Metropolitan Golf Association events together. I have won the club championship at Sobu Country Club, while Kenji won the 6th Tokyo Metropolitan Mid-Amateur Golf Championship in 2025. He also became the club champion at Ranzan Country Club that year. We both take competitive golf seriously.

Over time, that friendship through golf developed into a relationship in which I could also consult him about important business decisions.

We operate education businesses, primarily tutoring schools. M&A is one of the ways we pursue growth, but seeing a business’s appeal and potential as an owner is different from understanding the acquisition target’s finances. That is why we asked Kenji to conduct financial due diligence on our behalf as the buyer.

The first engagement was a nursery school transaction in 2020. We were considering its business potential, but his detailed review revealed issues with profitability and the financial position that were not apparent from simply taking the financial statements at face value.

Based on those findings, we ultimately decided not to proceed with the acquisition. Completing a deal is not an end in itself. Even if due diligence costs money, it is well worth doing if it enables you to pause before making a major investment. That experience showed me the value of support for a decision not to buy.

Later, in 2024, when we considered the acquisition of Focus LLC, we again asked Kenji to perform financial due diligence. This transaction involved a tutoring school business and ultimately proceeded to completion.

He did more than review the business plan and profit figures presented to us. Drawing on historical performance and recent monthly trends, he helped us assess the earnings we could reasonably expect and how that earning capacity should inform the acquisition price.

As a business owner, I want to value my positive impression of the other business and its management. At the same time, an investment requires financial evidence. His professional perspective helped us weigh both sides.

The two transactions had different outcomes: we walked away from one and completed the other. But both followed the same principle: investigate first, then make our own decision. Kenji organized the information we needed to do that.

We can speak openly as golf friends, while he is candid about what needs to be said in business. He is someone I can turn to whether I want to move a business forward or pause and think things through.