The Japan eSports Union (JeSU) announced that it has newly recognized 11 organizations as local branches and that they have been officially operating as JeSU branches since the end of January 2020.
New Branches in 11 Prefectures
JeSU has been accepting applications for additional local branches since May 2019, and after carefully examining organizational management, activity records, and other factors from among the many applications, the following 11 organizations were newly certified as JeSU local branches, which were determined to be able to continue to provide adequate street level services as local branches.
Prefecture Name | Organization name | Representative |
Iwate | Iwate e-Sports Association | Tetsuya Endo |
Yamagata | Yamagata e-Sports Association | Yujiro Arase |
Fukui | Fukui e-Sports Association | Tsukasa Minami |
Gifu | (Gifu e-Sports Association | Hideaki Saka |
Tokushima | Tokushima eSports Association | Goro Harada |
Ehime | Ehime e-Sports Association | Kazuhiko Tanaka |
Kochi | (Kochi e-Sports Association | Gohei Mitani |
Fukuoka eSports Association | Fukuoka eSports Association | Kenichi Nakajima |
Nagasaki | (Nagasaki e-Sports Association | Masujiro Higuchi |
Miyazaki | (Miyazaki e-Sports Association | Mitsunori Sato |
Kagoshima | (Kagoshima e-Sports Association | Shinji Ikeda |
The organizations that were not certified as branches this time will continue to be certified based on reports on their organizations and activity results, with plans to eventually establish branches in each of the 47 prefectures.
As a supplementary note, at the business seminar "eSPORTS BUSINESS SEMINAR" held at "eSPORTS TRINITY", Mr. Takehisa Otani, Secretary General of JeSU, took the stage and explained about the regional branches.
There was no detailed explanation of the conditions for becoming a local branch, but he said that local branches will be recognized by JeSU after a strict screening process.
Secretary General of JeSU, Takehisa Otani talks at the seminar
Confirmation of Japan e-Sports Union Branch Rules
The local branch rules are available in PDF format on the JeSU website. We have excerpted some of the sections we were interested in.
Article 4: Structure
The local branch shall have the following members (officers), unless the head office agrees that there are unavoidable circumstances such as budget and staff size, and that there are no obstacles to the execution of business as a local Branch in a prefecture.
(1) One President
(2) One Secretary General
(3) One other person
Article 5: Election and Dismissal of Officers
The election and dismissal of officers shall be made by a resolution of the General Assembly of the Branch and approved by the Board of Directors of the Headquarters.
Article 6: Duties of Officers
The duties of the Branch Officers shall be as follows
~ (abbreviated)
Shall not disclose or divulge any information obtained in the course of business or operations, as well as personal information, etc.
As mentioned above, this means that a minimum of three persons are required. In addition, the appointment and dismissal of officers will be decided by the local branches and approved by the JeSU Headquarters Board of Directors.
It is not specified whether these officers are to include only the president or the secretary general.
In addition, the fact that board members are not allowed to disclose or divulge business or operational information, Kotaro Mizoguchi, Executive Director of the Tokyo Section of JeSU, stated on Twitter that " Capcom is the one making the decision on the Capcom Cup prize money issue, so it is not JeSU's place to say anything about it", which may or may not be true. Regardless of the truth, he clearly disclosed information in the course of his duties, and if he is a board member, the board of directors of the head office would have approved the disclosure.
JeSU has a strict screening process, so there is a big possibility that the Executive Director is not included in the board members.
1つだけ弁解させて頂きたいのですが、今回のTGSの件で特定の(法)人が悪いなんて言いたかったのではないです。悪意を持った人なんて誰一人いなかったけど法的リスク回避や考えがすれ違っただけ、と言いたかった
伝え方が悪かったのの過去から今までの言動に関しては私が悪いです。
すみませんでした。— UGPs MZGC (@yukachinfl) September 17, 2019
The Tokyo Branch of JeSU deleted the tweet and tweeted an apology, saying that "legal risks were avoided and ideas were crossed," and that "the way I communicated was not good enough.
JeSU now has a total of 21 branches
With the addition of the 11 newly accredited branches, JeSU now has a total of 21 branches.
In the field of e-sports, which continues to grow in popularity, the establishment of local branches is expected to invigorate e-sports in each prefecture.
For more details, please visit the official JeSU website news page.