Rate My Professor Tohru Sassa

Professor Tohru Sassa serves as a professor in the Faculty of Commerce at Yokohama College of Commerce, holding the position since 2004 following promotions from associate professor (1998-2003) and full-time lecturer (1995-1997). He currently also acts as Vice President of the university and Director of the Comprehensive General Education Center within the Tourism Management Department. Sassa obtained his bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Commerce, Department of Business Administration at Yokohama City University in 1989. In 1995, he completed the required units for the doctoral program at Yokohama City University's Graduate School of Business Administration, specializing in human resource management theory.

His academic interests center on business administration, particularly small business management theory and the management of business succession for successors and entrepreneurs. Recent research themes encompass the development of management models for small businesses, including shops and SOHO operations; inheritance models for family businesses and livelihoods; management and model development for industry-academia collaboration in commerce and business administration; and management of town development activities in shopping streets. Sassa teaches courses such as management theory, social skills, small business management, and practical engagement with local communities in areas including Yokohama's Chinatown, Yanagawa, and Noge. He has contributed extensively to publications, including 'Business Succession in Small and Medium Enterprises – Focusing on the Succession of Human Networks Centered on Managers' in Management Theory (2009), 'Future Town Development in Yokohama’s Central City Areas – Toward Building a Yokohama-Style Town Development Strategy' in Renaissance of Yokohama Industry (2007), Report on the Actual Conditions of Wholesale Businesses in Yokohama City (2004), 'Management Strategies for Small Businesses' in Frontiers of Business Administration (2004) and Modern Management Strategy Case Studies (2003), 'Model Development for Business Succession in Small and Medium Enterprises' in Business Administration Essays 73 (2003), and 'IT and Venture Business – Aiming for Takeoff to an Entrepreneurial Society' in IT Revolution and New Century Society (2002). Additional contributions appear in edited volumes like Configuration of Business Administration (2003), Modern Management Encyclopedia, Vol. 1 (1999), and Essentials of Business Administration (1995). Sassa holds numerous committee roles, serving as chair and vice-chair in organizations such as the Yokohama Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Commercial Promotion Committee and Town Development Committee, Kanagawa Industry Promotion Center, and various Yokohama City bureaus including Economic, Urban Planning, Health and Welfare, and Transportation Bureaus, as well as the Yokohama Enterprise Management Support Foundation, focusing on town development, business succession, and community business initiatives.