Akemi Yamamoto 山本明美
Title: Pay it forward” Spa Relaken
"Spa Relaken" is located inside Torrance Hybrid Hotel. It is also a healing spot where magic power occurs. I interviewed the smiling owner, Akemi Yamamoto, about her amazing business skills.
A flexible creative group that is always unfinished
She was born in Miyazaki, Japan, to a large family of grandparents, parents, and four siblings. She spent her childhood running around in the fields and mountains, and was a middle and long distance athlete in middle and high school. She then went to Tokyo to pursue higher education, found a job, and got married. After giving birth, she started her own business. Riding the wave of the bubble economy, the company prospered in the database construction and digitization business using computers and electronic typesetting machines, making use of the skills I gained while working for Fujitsu. However, I felt the limitations of labor-intensive work, and after three or four years, I expanded the business to highly productive planning, marketing, and design. One of my most memorable jobs was a nighttime road closure notice project for a joint venture between the Urban Expressway Authority and the Japan Highway Public Corporation. This industry had nothing to do with design, and no one was paying attention to it. We proposed a character for the road agency, and the visibility, legibility, and design content of the notices were highly acclaimed. A few years later, we opened our Tokyo branch in Minami-Aoyama, and with so many companies within a 2-kilometer radius of our office, I was excited as I imagined the orders we would receive. I was a natural or super positive thinker from a young age.
A designer's idea of healing the five senses
Later, when I was a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Japan, I went to San Francisco to study social entrepreneurship, and I became interested in doing work that helps people's health and makes them happy. I opened "Spa Relaken" in Fukuoka Tenjin with the concept of "healing of the senses and reliable techniques" to create a healthy relaxation space using local natural materials. The relaxation boom was also a tailwind, and after going public in 2004, Relaken had 20 stores and 40 affiliated facilities, and before we knew it, we had more than 200 employees.
A ray of light from the darkness
In the midst of the bedrock bath boom, there was a sudden industry slam by a weekly magazine in 2006. Our company's sales dropped to half of what they had been, and the extent of the reputational damage was beyond our expectations.
We had to scramble around the country to procure funds, as our own funds had run out and we were in a tight spot. A female business owner in Osaka, who had been helping us, told us, "This is the money I had saved to build a house for my parents. But I have been watching you work hard as a business owner, and I want to support you." She handed us a check for 50 million yen on the spot. Another business owner in Osaka also provided the connecting funds. The merger of the two companies increased the company's stock 18-fold, and we were able to spend 1 billion yen to reorganize the stores and rebuild the company. Through this experience, I decided to go back to the basics of what management is for and what is important, so I took over the design and relaxation business and spun it off as a separate company. Soon after, I was approached to develop a hotel and spa in the U.S. and decided to go to the U.S. Even now, I believe that this experience was necessary for the growth of my soul.
Paying it forward at Spa Relaken
Thanks to your support, we reopened in January 2022 after being closed for a long time due to the COVID-19 disaster. Relaken has many repeat customers, and we are truly grateful for their kind words of encouragement, such as "I have been waiting for this moment," "Thank you," and "This is the source of my health." It is as if the bedrock ore from my hometown in Kyushu has come back to life and its power has been further enhanced. We have a team of experienced masseurs and facialists who are doing their best to take care of the bodies of our many customers. Knowing my destiny, I would like to devote myself to supporting the physical and mental health of many people here, so that I can send the favors I have received in other ways, without forgetting to express my gratitude.