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Cashless Fund Management and Fundraising for Club Activities. 'BUKATOOL' Opens the Door to a Sustainable Future for Local Sports【2025 ICT Startup League Member Interview: First Penguins, Inc.】
The transfer of school club activities to local community organizations is progressing. One of the reasons behind this is the increasing burden on teachers and staff who serve as coaches, but simply shifting them to local clubs is unlikely to solve the fundamental problems or curb the decline of club activities.
Dai Kawasaki, President and CEO of First Penguins, Inc., leveraged his experience in business development at a general trading company and as head coach of the Rikkyo University Rugby Club to launch his own company. He developed **“BUKATOOL,”** a platform that connects educational institutions, local governments, and financial institutions to support the fund management, fundraising, and operation of school club activities. By alleviating the burden of operating costs, securing coaches, and building a mechanism for circulating funds, the company aims to create a rich environment where children and students from any family can enjoy sports.
Dai Kawasaki, President and CEO of First Penguins, Inc.25 Years in Logistics Business Development at a General Trading Company
What got you started in rugby?
Kawasaki: Due to my father's job, I spent from the second to the sixth grade in Indonesia. When I returned to Japan in junior high school, I joined the soccer club, but I didn't get anywhere, so I decided to try a different sport in high school. I thought I might have a chance in rugby since many people start in high school. After all, if I'm going to do it, I want to be a regular player. At that time, "Mr. Rugby," the late Seiji Hirao, was very active, and the TV drama "School Wars" was popular, which also influenced me. I got really hooked on it and continued to play on a club team in college and after entering the workforce.
What captivated you about rugby?
Kawasaki: In rugby, a team of 15 players competes, and each position has a suitable, brilliant role. Also, during the game, it's the players, not the coach, who make real-time decisions and fight, so you can experience the excitement of taking the initiative. While there are these logical aspects, there's also the blatant need to put your body on the line, regardless of logic. You are saved by your teammates, and you save them in return. That's why it's so profound to play and has many parallels to work.
What was your motivation for aspiring to work for a general trading company after graduating from university?
Kawasaki: I thought I wasn't suited to pursuing results by continuing the same thing for a long time. That meant job types limited to specific business fields weren't for me. Instead, I felt an environment where I could be involved with diverse people, regardless of country or industry boundaries, would suit me better. As a result, I aimed for the general trading company sector, where my father also worked, and joined Sumitomo Corporation. I had absolutely no thought of starting my own business back then.
What kind of business were you in charge of at Sumitomo Corporation?
Kawasaki: I was involved in the logistics business for about 25 years. When I joined the company in 1997, logistics was merely a transportation service, "moving goods from point A to point B." However, with the spread of the internet and supply chains, we began to be required to create high added value through the building of stable supply systems, systemization, and business development.
For example, we built a system for stable transportation of ore mined in the remote areas of Tanzania so it could be refined into metal in Japan. We also designed a supply chain by combining finance to organize the provision of meals and souvenirs for theme parks. We also systemized and commercialized sales models where products change with each broadcast, like TV shopping. From 2011, I was stationed in Indonesia, where I was responsible for new business development, stimulated by the rapidly growing market and the local startups taking off there.
90% of a Coach's Work is Management
While working, you took on the role of head coach for your alma mater's rugby club, Rikkyo University, right?
Kawasaki: I served for four years starting at the age of 32, right after Rikkyo University was relegated from Group A to Group B of the **Kanto University Rugby League Championship**. Few Rikkyo University alumni continue top-level rugby after graduation, but an amateur club I co-founded with colleagues had become the champion of club rugby in Japan, and I was still playing actively there. I think that's why they approached me. Previous head coaches had mostly been older alumni who had reached retirement age, but since I was closer to the players in age and as a competitor, I decided to fully commit.
Even so, balancing it with your work must have been quite tough?
Kawasaki: It was. So, all my time outside of working at the company—weekday evenings, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays—was devoted to coaching. I cut down on social drinking and sleep; I had almost zero time off for myself. On days I couldn't go to the field, I would check videos until about 3 a.m. I lived about 10 minutes from my workplace, and I felt I couldn't neglect my work just because I was coaching. I thought students wouldn't respect someone who did, so I worked desperately to ensure I never caused trouble for the company. As I continued coaching, the understanding and consideration I received from my superiors and colleagues at the time gradually increased, which I was very grateful for.
Through coaching the rugby club, you keenly felt the problems in student sports, didn't you?
Kawasaki: The role of a head coach for a university sports team might look like an honorary position with generous support from the alumni association, but in reality, it was completely different. Not only was the compensation minimal, but even travel expenses came out of my own pocket. Within that, the time I could dedicate to the sport itself—coaching players and devising strategies—was only about 10% of the total. The remaining 90% was spent on management tasks such as fundraising, soliciting cooperation from alumni, selling merchandise, managing the morale of managers and staff, and recruiting players. I felt that the burden of on-site operations due to a lack of funding and manpower was extremely significant.
As countermeasures, I had ideas like creating a system to streamline operations, collaborating with sponsors, and systematizing donations. However, since I lacked the system or collaborators to implement them, these ideas remained just ideas.
What was the path from those experiences to the creation of "BUKATOOL"?
Kawasaki: In 2019, I had the opportunity to commercialize **"BUKATOOL"** after it was selected as the runner-up in the "In-house Startup Program 0→1 Challenge" conducted by my then-employer, Sumitomo Corporation. However, this was conditional on a department agreeing to take it on. After about two or three months of asking around, one department stepped forward, and I was assigned to that department in September of the same year, where the project officially began.
Did the commercialization progress smoothly?
Kawasaki: No, it didn't go well at all. General trading companies primarily focus on expanding existing businesses or collaborating with external partners, so they actually lack a "zero-to-one" (starting from scratch) culture. Even for things my current company does, like managing club activity supplies and selling support merchandise, the process for PoC (Proof of Concept) and internal coordination took an extremely long time, preventing progress to service verification. Meanwhile, voices suggesting "it's probably too difficult after all" started to surface, making it hard to continue within the company. But for me, I couldn't give up halfway on a job I felt I wanted to dedicate my life to. So, I told the company I would leave and continue the business myself. I resigned in June 2021 and founded my company in July.
The 'BUKATOOL' platform enables accounting management from club fees to school expenses.The Goal is a Student Sports Ecosystem like the NCAA
What was the first thing you tackled after starting your company?
Kawasaki: I created a matching site for school club coaches and schools, aiming to gather top-level coaches who had developed professional athletes, but the participation wasn't as high as expected. Upon reflection, there was no concept of paying coaches in the club activity setting in the first place, so there was no motivation for them to proactively participate.
I believe my 25 years of experience at a trading company was both a plus and a minus for starting a business. The good part was having the general management experience necessary for launching and running a business. The bad part was lacking the "clean slate perspective" that is especially necessary for a startup. I realized and regretted that we had adopted a product-out approach—deciding what we wanted to do first, arbitrarily assuming there was a "need"—and failed to truly address the users' key buying factor insights.
"BUKATOOL," released in February 2023, what kind of tool is it?
Kawasaki: After the matching site failed, I looked back at the interviews and notes from the roughly 200 teachers I had spoken to up to that point. A common issue emerged: many teachers tended to avoid "money talk" related to club fees and struggled to grasp the available funds and the actual necessary amounts. This is similar to companies that aren't profitable; if funds aren't managed, the necessary improvements cannot progress.
**"BUKATOOL,"** which shifted to a product focused solely on fund management, is a platform that allows for the cashless collection of club fees, school dues, alumni association fees, and equipment purchases, automatically reflecting them in the ledger. Once fund management is organized, the burden on teachers is reduced, freeing up time and capacity, which then leads to the next stage, such as coach dispatch and matching.
It is reportedly used by 65 club activities nationwide, covering about 2,500 households. How do you plan to develop it further?
Kawasaki: We aim to expand our target to approximately 8.5 million people involved in club activities from elementary, junior high, high school, and university levels. Furthermore, including public school teachers and guardians, the total target is estimated to reach nearly 10 million people. Currently, we offer tools for club activities and sell merchandise like T-shirts and caps, but eventually, we aim to become the official platform for the entire school. We will create a mechanism to attract donations and sponsorships from individuals and companies who resonate with their activities, circulating funds back to the schools to support the improvement of facilities and sustainable activities.
You are also advancing an empirical study of an education finance model utilizing "Furusato Nozei" (Hometown Tax Donation System).
Kawasaki: In collaboration with Shizuoka Prefecture and several cities, we are working towards an empirical study this fiscal year. This includes donations through the sale of school and club merchandise, as well as utilizing *Furusato Nozei* without a return gift to support learning opportunities and infrastructure. Thanks to our co-founder's connection, who runs an equipment store in Fujieda City, all soccer clubs in the high schools there use **"BUKATOOL."** We are accumulating more results in the surrounding areas and are starting to see school-wide adoption for managing general school expense accounting, not just club activities, which are typically borne by families.
Your future goal is to realize a system similar to university sports in the US, which is a massive market, correct?
Kawasaki: In the US, the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) centrally manages the rights and revenue from university sports. Sales of merchandise, sponsorships, donations, and viewing fees are aggregated, creating a market worth an estimated 2 trillion yen annually, hundreds of billions of which are then returned to each university and content site. In contrast, in Japan, despite having nationally popular sports like high school baseball and the Hakone Ekiden (relay race), the revenue from the tournaments is often not returned to the participating schools. While this is likely influenced by a lack of enthusiasm and institutional development for club activities themselves, I believe there's a high potential for creating a similar revenue circulation system in Japan, like the NCAA.
Actual donation collection screen using BUKATOOL. Transparency about which age groups and demographics are participating in real-time and the ease of cashless payments promote donations.Editor's Note
The vision of First Penguins, Inc. is to continuously offer learning and coaching that makes users think, "I wish I had this when I was a kid." Mr. Kawasaki stated, "We believe our challenge is how much of a world we can create that couldn't have existed without club activities or First Penguins." By establishing this circulation, they aim to ensure economic viability while sustainably expanding the service.
■ICT Startup League
This support program started in fiscal year 2023, catalyzed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' "Support Project for Seed-Stage R&D for Startup Creation."
The ICT Startup League supports startups through four pillars:
① R&D Funding / Hands-on Support
A subsidy of up to 20 million yen is provided for research and development expenses. For hands-on support, the screening committee members involved in the league member selection remain close partners even after selection, promoting growth. A support system, much like "active championing," is established where the screening committee members themselves continuously assist companies they evaluated as "absolutely must be adopted," offering advice on business plans and providing growth opportunities.
② Discovery and Cultivation
The league provides opportunities for learning and networking to promote the business growth of its members.
It also seeks to discover individuals aspiring to start a business, aiming to broaden the base.
③ Competition & Co-creation
It serves as a platform for positive competition, much like a sports league, where startups learn from and push each other, competing to win the necessary funding (up to 20 million yen). It also offers a platform for co-creation, where league members collaborate through various opportunities, such as sessions with screening committee members, to expand their businesses.
④ Dissemination
The league members' initiatives are publicized in collaboration with the media! By making their business known to a wider audience, they aim to open up new opportunities for matching and collaboration.
■Related Websites
First Penguins, Inc.
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First Penguins, Inc. (LEAGUE MEMBER)
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ICT Startup League
