Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. (MRI) launched the ATHLETE.IN organization for athletes and the Athlete Support Lab for employers in March 2023 as part of its Athlete FLAP Support (AFS) Project to help both active and retired sportspersons forge future careers. What lead MRI to start this initiative?

The story begins back in 2014, the year after Tokyo was selected to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, when MRI founded the Council for the Co-Creation of an Olympic and Paralympic Legacy. The aim was to secure a lasting legacy for the Tokyo 2020 Games, including by ensuring that Games venues would be used effectively going forward. The Council has a membership base of nearly 200 industry, academic, and governmental organizations.

Meanwhile, Takehito Kimura, who leads the AFS Project at MRI’s Human Capital and Career Division, had long been troubled by the fact that retired Japanese athletes, even those who had competed at the world’s highest level, had difficulties finding suitable jobs where they could put their skills and experience to work. He made a proposal to the Council that as well as tangible legacies, the Games should also leave intangible legacies, such as helping retired Olympians thrive after they hang up their boots as well as providing the next generation of athletes with opportunities for development.

“Based on its research, MRI forecasts a supply-demand mismatch in the labor market of about two million people in the near future,” says Mr. Kimura. “Progress in robotics and widespread use of AI will leave a surplus of labor for routine work in fields that see a shortage of workers right now. On the other hand, there will be a shortage of workers who know how to use robots and AI to make innovations. So we’re left with a question: how can we increase the number of people who can take an analytical approach to non-routine tasks that are constantly changing?”

He continues: “There are about seven million people in Japan right now who are not working as regular company employees. This includes people with unique careers that put them outside the standard corporate employment model. And athletes are a high-profile example. Against this background, and to find an answer to the question posed earlier, MRI launched the Athlete FLAP Support Project to support people who have the potential to succeed in business but do not have sufficient opportunities at existing corporate organizations to demonstrate this potential. We aim to help them take on the challenge of crafting careers where future growth is possible.”

The Athlete FLAP Support Project is based on the FLAP Cycle proposed by MRI for building autonomy in careers.
・Find : Find out what attributes and strengths you have, what jobs you might have an aptitude for, and the outlook for such jobs
・Learn : Improve your existing skills and learn new skills to get yourself on your desired trajectory
・Act : Take actions in line with your desired trajectory
・Perform: Demonstrate your abilities in a new setting

“Many athletes already cycle through Find, Learn and Act in their athletic careers to analyze their strengths and achieve their goals,” notes Mr. Kimura. “So, by participating in the project and assisting athletes with the FLAP process, people with a business background will also be able to learn something from them. This is the kind of synergy I expect to see.”

In the Athlete FLAP Support Project, athletes and others engaged in sports are offered free membership in an organization named “ATHLETE.IN.” Through this organization, athletes can network with each other and with representatives of companies and local governments both online and offline. A service called “AI Mentor” is also provided to help athletes rediscover their strengths using AI and build motivation to embrace challenges. The service is thus intended to support athletes in shifting their mindset for greater career autonomy.

Companies and other organizations, meanwhile, are invited to join an organization named “Athlete Support Lab,” paying an annual membership fee of 132,000 yen (including tax). The organization provides a matching service to help its members employ retired athletes and find active or retired athletes to participate in organizational initiatives like training, health promotion, diversity, and new business creation. Through these two membership organizations, the project provides both athletes and companies with a range of mutually beneficial opportunities. According to Shoko Okuno, who also manages the AFS Project at MRI, “Around half of the athletes registered with ATHLETE.IN are still active and half have already retired.”

“We’ve found that many athletes lack a chance to interact with other athletes, because they are all focused on their own sports,” Ms. Okuno explains. “They therefore have few people to turn to for advice about a career switch. They are usually limited to those who are bit ahead of them in terms of their athletic career and those who they also happen to be close to. I hope that the opportunities for networking with other athletes through ATHLETE.IN will help them in thinking about their own careers.”

She goes on: “In order to continue to thrive by drawing on their unique talents, athletes need to think about their aptitude for different jobs and work on some short-term projects while they are still competing. This should be done with an eye to developing a future career. And they should not postpone planning for this until after they have decided to retire from sports. We need to facilitate a change in the greater mindset among athletes. Companies, on the other hand, are working through trial and error to find ways to help athletes succeed in their workplaces.”

Proposals made to athletes by members of the Athlete Support Lab include contributing to regional revitalization by becoming a manager of a hotel, participating in a sports event held by companies and local governments as a guest athlete, and serving as a corporate guest speaker on diversity as a para-athlete. As a real-life example of a successful matchup, the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) has been collaborating with athletes to implement an initiative to promote the sports industry. Under the initiative, the OCCI is creating new businesses in reference to problems faced by athletes and invites athletes to serve as advisors in a university-level professional development program, which targets careers in sports and wellness.

Ms. Okuno says: “Participants have said that the project helped them to build ties and broaden their potential. Lots of athletes really want to make use of their sporting expertise to help educate youth, and the program targeting university students was one they particularly liked. We have also received positive feedback from people in the business community, including those who said, ‘It inspired us to listen to opinions expressed from perspectives that differ from our own.’”

Regarding the matching service, Ms. Okuno hopes that companies will not compete but rather collaborate to provide athletes with more choices. The various ways in which athletes can thrive in new fields will be assessed through the project using data and case studies. The goal will be to promote employer matching and to foster unexpected collaborations among athletes, companies, and local communities.

“Career development by athletes, particularly by female athletes, is an important theme for us,” concludes Mr. Kimura. “We are working to understand what kind of career support female athletes need during the period before and after childbirth and while they are raising a family. I would encourage athletes to consider developing a dual career in addition to a second career. I also hope that by seeing athletes shine through their career autonomy, the next generation of children, our future leaders, will be encouraged to embrace challenges in their favored fields.”

“I hope athletes will become interested in Mitsubishi Group companies,” adds Ms. Okuno, “and I hope that we can work with athletes to create more opportunities that are beneficial both for them and us. I will strive to get the entire Mitsubishi Group behind the idea of supporting athletes.”

MRI intends to expand the scope of the project to eventually include those with unique careers that put them outside the standard corporate employment model. It might come as a surprise to hear that MRI is working to support athletes but its efforts are in service of its greater goals: to create a society where anyone can take on the challenge of making their dream come true and start over when experiencing a setback or after retiring as an athlete. MRI also aims for a society where everyone has a variety of career options and is not restricted by conventional limitations, such the current focus on the educational background of new graduates.