Formerly acclaimed as a millionaire list top dog and known as Japan’s “Casino King”, Kazuo Okada has embarked on an extraordinary social media strategy to get himself reinstated as Chairman of the company he founded, pachislot manufacturer Universal Entertainment Corp.
Okada made his YouTube debut by presenting a conditional HK$7 million gift in a bizarre and highly produced video post. The post was labeled as “part 1” indicating the former casino mogul has more to come.
Kazuo Okada’s YouTube channel was established on 13 March and on it he loftily declared “I’ll be back,” while the theme music of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Terminator played in the background. He waved a HK$7 million check (JPY 100 million, US$890,000) and boldly declared that he would offer it to one of his social media followers, with some conditions attached. The details of these conditions are to be revealed in future YouTube posts, in a move seemingly aimed at increasing the number of followers of Okada’s YouTube channel.
He also started a Twitter account around the same time, which he is already updating frequently with his current situation and intentions, much in the manner of US President Donald Trump. Okada has already made one condition known – that the HK$7 million will be awarded only if he is returned to his previous role – stating, “Please support me so that I can realize my reinstatement!”
Okada is trying to find a way to take back the Chairman’s seat after he was ousted by his family from the Board of Directors in 2017. In an interview in this week’s Shuukan Post, he expressed no waivering in his passion, saying, “I want to build two casinos in Asia.”
Will this unusual social media campaign be successful? Only time will tell …