In 2006 we started a junior youth football team and a football school in Kita-ku, Kobe. For twenty years we have thought about one thing above all: creating a place where children want to come back tomorrow.

Along the way we launched our own apparel brand because we wanted to deliver better kit; we opened a cram school after seeing players struggle to balance training and study; we began working on food education to support their physical development; and we became involved in community events. Our businesses did not multiply by design. They took their present shape because we kept facing the person in front of us.

Sport is not only about winning and losing. It is a doorway through which people grow, people connect, and a community comes alive. In our twentieth year, we want to build the next twenty years together with companies, organisations and local governments who share this belief.

Jun Kametani, President and Representative Director, DIRESPO Inc.