The Realities of Young Leaders Tackling the Resolution of Social Issues

Contents

Introducing Three Young Leaders Tackling New Areas
What Are Their Thoughts on Their Projects, and What Do They Value?
Changes in Mindset and Business Development Capabilities Based on Fujitsu’s Purpose
Imagining an Ideal Future Leads to Infinite Ideas for Project Development
The Spirit of Challenge and an Unfettered Corporate Culture Helps Young Employees Grow

We will make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation.
Fujitsu's values, “aspiration,” “trust,” and “empathy,” have been passed down within the company for generations.
By placing people and society as our top priority, we continue to work toward resolving social issues every day by using cutting-edge technology to build confidence among our stakeholders who possess a wide range of strengths.

In this article, we take a close look at the realities of young leaders active in new business fields. The article features three employees working to solve different social issues and discusses the details of the projects they are working on, what they enjoy most about them, and their visions for the projects.

(This article is a summary of the special presentation The Realities of Young Leaders Tackling the Resolution of Social Issues presented as part of CEATEC 2021 ONLINE, which was held from October 19 – 22, 2021.)

Miteki Muramatsu
Recruiting Center
Satoshi Shimokawa
DA Engineering Dept., Digital Annealer Division
Software Technology Business Unit
Yuko Yamabayashi
Sports Business Development Division
Motoi Funase
Future Society & Technology Unit

Introducing Three Young Leaders Tackling New Areas

Miteki Muramatsu (hereinafter Muramatsu): Please tell us how you are advancing your projects and what you are thinking about as you work on them.
First, please introduce yourselves and tell us about your current projects.

Satoshi Shimokawa (hereinafter Shimokawa): I'm working on an optimization solutions business that uses the Digital Annealer, a computer technology newly developed by Fujitsu. When I first joined Fujitsu, I was in the research department, working on the research and development of computer peripherals.
With its superior computing power, the Digital Annealer has an incredibly wide range of uses in fields such as finance, chemistry, e-commerce development, and transportation and logistics. Our recent successful projects include the automated optimization of load planning for loading cars onto ships for export. We succeeded in reducing working hours by more than 4,000 hours per year and received very positive feedback from the client.

Yuko Yamabayashi (hereinafter Yamabayashi): Previously, I worked as a Japanese teacher at a university in Ghana, a country in West Africa. After building experience at a few other jobs, I joined Fujitsu at the end of 2020. I currently work in the Sports Business Development Division. I am working on a project introducing Fujitsu's artistic gymnastics Judging Support System to national federations and club teams in 146 countries around the world.

Motoi Funase (hereinafter Funase): Immediately after joining Fujitsu, I worked in the information systems department and was involved in internal IT development. After transferring departments, I currently research overseas technology and case studies. I also work on service solutions development for smart cities, which I began in June this year. Fujitsu's Future Society & Technology Unit was established to meet the needs of global smart cities. Most recently, we have been working with Kawasaki City on the planning and development of a smart city.

What Are Their Thoughts on Their Projects, and What Do They Value?

Shimokawa: I certainly want to expand our business that uses the Digital Annealer, but I work on my projects to meet the needs of our customers who passionately want to improve their business operations.

Yamabayashi: I agree. I also value communicating with our customers. The AI-powered Judging Support System actually originated from a joke. In 2015, Morinari Watanabe, the president of the International Gymnastics Federation, joked that in the 21st century, robots will be scoring competitions. The head of our division, Mr. Fujiwara, took that remark seriously (laughs). Six years later, AI judging technology is now being used at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships.

Funase: It's important to think of our customers' issues as being our own issues. Since environmental services are a new business, we make sure to look for the real issues by talking to our customers in order to avoid becoming complacent.

Changes in Mindset and Business Development Capabilities Based on Fujitsu’s Purpose

Muramatsu: In 2020, Fujitsu established our purpose as "to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation." What do you think about our company's purpose? Has it influenced your attitude toward your work?

Shimokawa: I've discussed both inside and outside the company about using the Digital Annealer to solve social issues such as environmental problems and labor shortage, and not just treating it as a tool to increase operational efficiency. This is no doubt connected to Fujitsu's purpose.

Funase: “Making the world more sustainable” fits with the direction of the environmental service that I'm currently working on. Being able to push forward while basing our actions on the company purpose is important for staying on track when innovating in new areas.

Yamabayashi: A health event called Sante Gym will be held at the same time as the Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, which will be held in Kitakyushu. We plan to provide visitors with individualized exercises for improving their health by using AI to analyze their body movements. I am going to continue to strive toward realizing Fujitsu's purpose through my work in sports and AI.

*This interview was conducted in September 2021.

Imagining an Ideal Future Leads to Infinite Ideas for Project Development

Muramatsu: Finally, please tell us what you would like to accomplish in the future.

Funase: I'd like to take the smart city concept that we started developing with Kawasaki City and spread it to other local governments and regions around the world.

Yamabayashi: I'd like to continue supporting well-being by applying the technology we developed for the AI-powered Judging Support System to other fields, such as promoting health and supporting people with disabilities.

Shimokawa: I would like to combine the Digital Annealer, HPC (which Fujitsu specializes in), and AI technology to offer new services that help solve social issues.

Muramatsu: I believe that your shared desire to change the world is an important part of creating the future. Thank you for your time today.

The Spirit of Challenge and an Unfettered Corporate Culture Helps Young Employees Grow

Not only does Fujitsu work toward solving a range of social issues using proprietary technology, but the company also aims to dramatically change how we work through initiatives such as the internal job posting system. In this interview we discussed Fujitsu's corporate culture, which embraces the spirit of challenge and values free thinking. Watching this interview, in which these young leaders talk animatedly about their projects and passions may show you a new side of Fujitsu. Please check out the video.

This article was written by

the Fujitsu Transformation News Editorial Department At Fujitsu Transformation News, we introduce Fujitsu's latest efforts to solve social issues.

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