Masakazu Sakai

Masakazu Sakai (Born May 17th, 1966) is a Japanese businessman and event producer. He is the representative director of both Smash Inc. and Quantum Jump Japan. Sakai is also the current CEO of Pancrase.
Personal History
Sakai was raised in an orphanage on Enoshima in Shonan, Kanagawa prefecture. His interest in fighting started when he took up boxing during his junior high school years. Despite his delinquent tendencies whilst living in Adachi ward, Tokyo, Sakai managed to find himself a live-in mechanic job whilst continuing his high school studies via correspondence. A salesperson at a major general insurance company that had dealings with Sakai, noticed his sharp business acumen and offered him a position within the company where he went on to receive many titles for his work. Upon leaving the Insurance Company in 2000, he rented a 9 square meter plot of land where he could sell automobiles fitted with satellite navigation consoles. Sakai received offers of financial funding for his project by means of a joint business partnership with a major domestic car rental company as well as a large overseas coffee company but he declined their advances citing that the market only had 10 years of potential business to capitalize upon. Drawn to the system of Asset Based Lending that was being popularized in North America and Europe at the around the same time, Sakai decided to present his business model to Funai Consulting Incorporated for consideration.
On January 4th 2005, Funai Consulting Inc. established an associated company called Funai Asset Total Support Inc.; a consultancy which utilized Sakai’s progressive business methods for increasing the value of personal assets. Sakai’s method of asset consultation soon gained recognition, earning him the Tama Shinkin Bank Green award for management excellence as well as the Tokyo Metropolitan Industry and Commerce award in 2006. On July 22nd 2010, T.V. Tokyo broadcast a special feature titled “World Business Satellite” which was centered on Sakai’s Business model.
On November 1st 2006, Sakai changed the name of Funai Asset Total Support to Quantum Jump Japan Co. Ltd. and appointed “father of the Nissan Skyline”, Shinichiro Sakurai, as a key advisor. An NHK documentary broadcast in September 2004 entitled “Project X -Challengers-” featuring the story “Quantum Jump” by Sakurai left a deep impression on Sakai at the time and he soon sought out an opportunity to meet with Sakurai face to face. The two of them hit it off immediately with Sakai inheriting the name “Quantum Jump” from Sakurai whilst simultaneously appointing him as a key advisor. Loosely basing his business methods on quantum physics, Sakai wanted to convey his “rapid conversion of ideas” among his peers so he chose “Quantum Jump” as the new company name.
Consulting/Produce
On April 28th 2009, Sakai was the first person in the world to offer rental Mercedes-Benz C-Class cars for driving instruction purposes. Employing the same business methods used at his personal asset consultancy, Sakai was able to build an enterprise within the automobile training sector with around 50% of the nation’s 1,337 training institutions purchasing his cars.
In 2010 Mercedes-Benz exclusively manufactured customized SLR McLaren Roadstars at their Maybach Center of excellence in Germany for the Japanese market. Each car sold out on the day of their arrival in Japan. Mercedes-Benz also test drove their SLS AMG model on the Paul Ricard Circuit in Le Castellet near Marseille, France in preparation for the Japanese market.
Sakai also partnered with Joysound Karaoke on demand Xing Inc. to produce advertising media via their Karaoke remote devices. He is also involved with the production of several Ramen stores.
On July 13th 2010, Sakai took part in the baseball season opening ceremony at Chiba Marine stadium and gave a speech presentation.
In February 2012, Sakai started a business partnership with Japan’s largest light freight shipping company to carry out lightweight truck operations whilst managing, developing, and sponsoring their financial affairs.
Pro-Wrestling
As part of an initiative to stimulate interest in various regions whilst contributing to sports society as a whole, Sakai applied his consulting skills to established Pro-wrestling event “Hustle” and helped develop the student performance event “Hustle Live”. Popular Japanese actor, Riki Takeuchi, lent his support to the event under the alter-ego of his “Twin younger brother” R.I.K.I RIKI, who transformed into “King Riki” and helped promote “Hustle Aid 2009” and “Hustle Jihad 2009” both of which took place at the Ryogoku Kokugikan. Sakai went on to become chief advisor of Hustle in August of 2009 but he soon landed himself in hot water when he stated that he’d like to see his namesake, and then much talked about girl idol, Noriko Sakai, fight in the ring at Hustle. Sakai later stated that he wished to rebuild Hustle from scratch but cited there were “difficulties that lay within the Hustle content management” before resigning from his position as chief advisor in December the same year.
Shortly after his resignation, Sakai established a pro-wrestling and martial arts organization on February 2nd 2010 called “Smash” out of consideration for all the unpaid fighters and staff that were affected by the collapse of Hustle. Sakai took charge of the pro-wrestling department with the aid of TAJIRI, a former wrestler at Hustle, with the first ever SMASH event taking place at Shinjuku FACE on March 26th 2010. The joint effort between and Sakai and TAJIRI proved so successful that a mere 8 months after its inception, they managed to hold a sell-out SMASH event at the JCB Hall (now called the TDC Hall) on November 22nd of the same year.
Sakai’s unique management techniques proved so effective that the first 24 SMASH events completely sold out earning his organization the nickname “The winning team”. However, an emergency press conference on February 10th 2012 brought the surprise announcement that the Sakai-TAJIRI partnership would be dissolved and that “SMASH.25” at the TDC Hall on February 19th would be the final curtain call. The media responded to the announcement by saying that “SMASH has fulfilled its mission in carrying the torch. It’s time for a step in a new direction”
On May 20th 2011, Sakai announced a joint-partnership with the Tenryu Project and gave his full support in organizing the 35th anniversary event of Genichiro Tenryu’s wrestling debut in November of the same year. The event completely sold out.

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