Yoji Masuoka was a four-year member (2003-04 through 2006-07) of the Emory men's tennis program. A native of Tokyo, Japan, he closed out his career in the No. 8 spot on the program's all-time ladder with 78 singles victories and helped the Eagles to a dual record of 89-17. During his Emory stint, the school captured four UAA titles and made four trips to the NCAA Championships, capturing the national crown in 2006 and finishing runner-up the following campaign. During the squad's 2006 run to the national crown, he rattled off 27 singles wins including three at the Championships. He was a five-time All-American (three times in singles, two in doubles) and garnered five All-UAA certificates. Among his many accomplishments was his bringing home the 2004 ITA South Regional Singles Championship. Finally, Yoji was the recipient of Emory's 2006-07 McCord Award, awarded for an outstanding career or season performance in an individual-based sport.
Q: Occupation and where do you live?
YM: I work for my family business called Tekko Building, which is a commercial real estate company, in Tokyo, Japan developing and running office buildings, commercial facilities and hotels/serviced apartments. I am particularly looking after new investments as well as overseas projects.
Q: Can you provide an update on some of your experiences post-Emory to where you are now?
YM: After I graduated from Emory, I worked for Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley before I joined my family business. I did my first training in NY, then moved to the Tokyo office and then the Hong Kong office. I was doing FX trading throughout my finance career. After I left finance, I thought this could be my last career change due to joining my family business, therefore I took 4 months off and traveled around the world.
Q: What are your reflections upon your time at Emory, both as a tennis player and as a student?
YM: Being a student athlete at Emory taught me many things such as hard work in both practice and academics, building a strong relationship with my coach and teammates and most importantly becoming competitive.
Q: Who were some influential people during your time at Emory?
YM: Definitely, coach (John) Browning. Without my coach, I could not have had the experience to play on the team, improving my game and being part of a national championship team. Also, my teammate, Tyson Ramsay introduced Emory to me as he graduated from the same high school in Florida.
Q: You were a part of the 2005-06 national championship team. Heading into the season, Emory was not considered a heavy favorite to win the title after graduating four players from the lineup the previous year. Do you remember any turning point during that year, where you guys thought you had something special?
YM: That is true, after losing talented seniors, we were an underdog but that probably helped us being released from the pressure. First, we had two new leaders in Patrick Redmond and Jesse Ferlianto who stepped up which made us confident believing ourselves that we could win nationals. Secondly, we added very talented freshmen on our roster including Michael Goodwin who played at first singles. They brought so much momentum and our seniors/juniors became more competitive. Lastly, we were very close, hanging out all the time even off the court, taking road trips together watching top D1 matches like Univ. Florida vs Univ. Georgia that made us want to compete at high level.
Q: What are some other highlights that you remember while playing tennis at Emory?
YM: On a team level, winning the national tournament in 2006 was a major highlight. That team probably had strong relationship -- we were always spending time together even off the court.
Individually, my sophomore year was a turn-around season for me after struggling to be on the starting lineup in my freshman year. I worked hard and was hungry to play that I somehow won the regional in singles and was ranked 3rd at the fall nationals.
Q: How you are surviving the pandemic and how has it affected you?
YM: It is a very difficult situation across the globe and I am currently working remotely more than half of my week. Having a two-year old son, my wife and I are being very careful when going outside and limiting our access to public places. However, I am able to spend more time with my family which is positive.
Q: Any interests/hobbies or things you do to relax when away from work?
YM: Other than playing tennis, I started riding road bike, and growing veggies at my house.
Q: Any former teammates that you are in contact with?
YM: I continue to be in touch with most of my teammates. I have attended two of their weddings traveling from Japan.
Q: Are you able to keep up with Emory tennis?
YM: Yes, I exchange emails with coach Browning and read the feed from Facebook.
Q: Is there anything that you take from being a student-athlete into your profession?
YM: Actually, it helped me considerably in finding my jobs, chatting with people I met for the first time and generally people are interested what student-athlete life is like. During job recruitments, when I said I played for Emory tennis it opened up the conversation a lot.
Q: Any advice you would give Emory students/future grads?
YM: The Emory network is global and I still attend alumni events in Japan as I did in Hong Kong. When I traveled around the world, I met people with common friends or families who graduated from Emory. I would advise to start building a network during your undergrad days and with people in outside your field. The Emory network is a treasure.
Q: Any other items you would want to add?
YM: My wife, Reina, and I have a 2-year old son, Kent. Reina studied at UC Santa Barbara, and we want our son to also study abroad like we did.
Yoji Masuoka lives in Tokyo and works in the family business, Tekko Building.