It is not often that an Old Bedfordian is able to travel half way around the world to speak to the boys about their career. We were therefore really grateful that Tasuku Okawa (95-01) took a detour during his visit from Japan to Spain to speak to the Media Society on Friday 17th March.
Tasuku is currently Head of Social Media and the Chief Editor of DAZN News, Japan, where he is responsible for the social media content for Football, Baseball, F1 and other sports in Japan, creating promotional content for DAZN.
Tasuku spoke to the boys about his career and how he went from a degree in Economics, to a career in Sports Media. He first discovered football as a boarder in Phillpotts and enjoyed the camaraderie of both watching and playing it with his housemates. He never dreamt that eventually he would land his dream job where he could spend his days watching football and would interview Premier League players. He even became the subject of a Twitter storm in Spain when his Twitter handle @tas was mistaken for that of Spain’s Court of Arbitration (Tas/Cas) after they issued a ban to Atlético de Madrid. On the flip side, he gained thousands of Twitter followers in Spain and is followed by, and on speaking terms, with Fernando Torres!
The Media society has welcomed a variety of speakers this year from members of our community. The boys were interested to hear how social media is playing such a huge role in the promotion of sport via Twitter and Youtube and were keen to ask Tasuku how they could pursue a career in this field.
Following his talk, Tasuku enjoyed a trip down memory lane when he visited Phillpotts, where he had boarded for 5 years, and was overjoyed to see that one of his original pieces of artwork was still on display in the house. As an Art Scholar, he is now putting his creative talents to good use in the world of social media.