Yutaro Kagawa, 28 years old, married. He is a member of the Creative Department Operations Team Kawarazaki Group.
He is from Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku, a city of hot springs, castles, and literature.
He is a former band member (drummer) and a heavy drinker.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the appeal of "Kagawachi," which is my current favorite (of course, not in that sense).
Anxious and timid
Late November 2014. When I joined Monosus, I was assigned to the Kawarazaki team, where Kagawa was.
My first impression of him was that I was very unsure whether I could get along with a guy like him - he had gray eyelashes on his right, a pierced left ear, a somewhat brazen attitude, and spoke in a way that was typical of young people these days.
However, that first impression turned out to be unfounded.
Kagawa (left) and the author (right) playing around. Contrary to my first impression, he is now as cute as a little brother. He is somehow charming and lovable.
Kagawa's working style is to jump into anything he doesn't know, doesn't understand, is difficult or new, saying, "Oh, that's good." Perhaps because of his personality, he had no experience in the web industry when he joined Monosus, but he has been actively involved in design and coding, and recently he has been proactively proposing improvements to websites, steadily expanding the range of things he can do.
On the other hand, you often see him saying, "I'm such a coward..." and always thinking about something and trying new things.
In August of this year, Kagawa was selected to be the lecturer for a two-day course on design for operational projects as part of the ongoing Kamiyama Monosasu Juku course in Kamiyama, Tokushima Prefecture.
He reread and revised the materials used in class many times, and ran simulations many times to get a grasp of the concept, and he completed the exercise brilliantly.
Kurihara, the school principal who supported the lessons, also commented, "Kagawa-kun is a worrier, but because he carefully simulates everything that could happen on-site and makes proper preparations in advance, I was able to watch him with peace of mind."
Kagawa's memo from when he first joined the company. It's carefully written down to the smallest detail.
This is a story from Kagawa's first visit. He asked the director in charge of the project, "I'm so nervous, what should I do on the day?" The director advised him to "put together what you're going to say," so he prepared a perfect script that included questions, points of confusion, and even the content of what he was going to say, and rehearsed it many times.
"When someone asks me to do something, I want to live up to their expectations."
That's what Kagawa tweeted.
Although she is a bit of a coward and prone to anxiety, once she decides to do something she won't back down in order to meet everyone's expectations.
Although he doesn't usually show it, he seems to have strong feelings deep inside.
Never give up on alcohol
A scene from Monosus Cherry Blossom Viewing 2016. Kagawa never stops drinking, no matter what the situation. The other members around him burst out laughing.
It's hard to talk about him without mentioning alcohol.
The Kagawa style is to drink cheaply, to your heart's content, and to feel good.
I have the same style, so I often find myself drinking with him.
If I go to a bar that offers 30 minutes of all-you-can-drink for 1,000 yen, I empty my mug at an incredible speed in the limited time, but if I go to a certain famous chain store, I enjoy every last drop of a small mug that costs 150 yen per glass.
And in the end, we always head home with steps like jellyfish floating freely and gracefully through the ocean (although we should both be careful not to drink too much).
Of course, there were countless episodes where he let loose.
For Kagawa, not only does he miss the last train, but he also misses his train and ends up in an unreasonable place, which is a piece of cake.
However, I can't tell you the truly interesting episodes here.
If you have the opportunity to interact with him, I would love to hear from him directly.
Although Kagawa loves alcohol, even if you suddenly invite him out for drinks he won't agree, saying, "My wife is waiting for me at home."
He is a loving husband and also has a strong will.
Come to think of it, I started quitting smoking a while ago and it's been a great success.
He says he started quitting smoking for his wife's sake.
The author (left) and Kagawa (right), both former band members, tune up in the studio after work.
Ah, it looks like...
Kagawa Yuutaro is a playful young brother character who is loved by everyone.
I asked Kagawa what the other members of the team thought of him.
"I may not look like it, but I'm actually quite skillful."
"Although he looks like he's a real man, he's actually quite honest."
"Although he looks like he's actually a kind person"
"Despite appearance, he's actually very polite."
"I may look like that, but I'm actually serious."
It was striking that everyone began speaking in unison, "It may look like this, but actually..."
Kagawa appears to be decisive but is actually timid and anxious, and is strong-willed but helpsless when drunk - I think this dual nature of his is what makes everyone think, "He looks like this, but actually..."
"He may look like that, but he actually likes to study. When he first joined the company, he had no experience, so he would come to the office earlier than anyone else every morning to study," say members who knew Kagawa when he first joined the company. Although he doesn't usually show this behavior, he continues to work hard in the shadows.
This happened during a certain operational project. Kagawa had been assigned as a designer, but because his skills did not reach the level required by the senior designers, he was only entrusted with parts and partial work. Kagawa felt anxious and impatient about his own lack of skills, so he read through books on design and spent his days repeatedly copying websites and landing pages.
One day, while we were going through these days, a senior designer fell ill and had to take time off.
To make matters worse, we also received a flood of requests to fix projects that were already proving to be problematic.
If we wait for the senior designer to come to work, we won't be able to meet the deadline.
As a result, Kagawa took over the role.
The quality of the page that Kagawa revised was so high that even the senior designers gave their stamp of approval, saying, "We can trust you with this from now on." Of course, the client also gave it a thumbs up, and he got the OK in one shot. It was also the moment when all the hard work he had put in had paid off.
Kagawa is now in charge of the project as the main designer.
He always jokes, "I'm not serious at all," and "I'm not really thinking about anything seriously," but I know him as he thinks deeply about things and tackles them head-on.
This is Kagawacchi, a secretly hardworking person.
Let's continue to work together as colleagues to make the operations team a success.
モノサスアーカイブ