Theme: Creating for the Future - A Lifestyle for the Network Society Guest Speaker: Mr. Kazunori Ukigawa, Founder, President and CEO of Justsystem Corporation

1. Personal profile

1973:	Graduated from Ehime University (Department of Technology, School of Electrical Engineering). Joined NISHISHIBA ELECTRIC CO., LTD. and did electric facilities safety design for vessels.
1979:	Founded JUSTSYSTEM Corporation in Tokushima, and released “JS-Word” for the NEC PC-100 in October 1983.
1985:	Release of the Japanese word processing software “Ichitaro,” followed by as many as 20 updated versions. Also released a series of other new software titles, including the drawing program “Hanako,” the Japanese language input software “ATOK,” and translation software.
2004:	Developed “xfy technology,” a futuristic technology that makes possible nearly unlimited applications, with the ultimate goal of its commercialization.

2. Summary of Mr. Ukigawa’s Speech
Today’s values and behaviors depend on visions of the future (goals). As an extreme analogy, suppose you could live for as long as 300 years without losing the physical characteristics of your 20s or 30s. Your values and behavior would be sure to change. That’s the kind of perspective that led us to launch the “2020 Project.”

This project assumes that advanced digital technology and the communication revolution will bring about drastic, sweeping social and individual changes. We contemplate ways to prepare for such a future and research technologies to accomplish them. Such is the scheme of the “2020 Project” we launched in 1997.

The project revolves around a computer environment whose central theme is the realization of happiness for individuals and families. This happiness flows from the creation of computer technology that will contribute to human health as well as eliminate loneliness and anxiety. By constantly pursuing such visions of the future with new approaches to the infinite possibilities it presents, we succeeded in developing “xfy technology,” a software suite that has limitless applications. We believe we have accomplished this only because we have constantly been exploring ways to continue to forge something new, always thinking about our future from the perspective of “what it should be” rather than “what to do about it.” We expect the development of xfy technology to allow us to achieve the objectives we set out in the 2020 Project.

3. Comments from the minutes-taker
Mr. Ukigawa said that thinking in a future-oriented manner was the source of business expansion and that the key was to think about our future from the perspective of “what it should be” instead of “what to do about it.” In line with this attitude, he has been creating singular new technologies and offering these new products to all.

Starting with “Ichitaro,” Mr. Ukigawa has released a great many new products, finally arriving at the development of “xfy technology,” which permits unlimited applications.

We were deeply moved by his enormous enthusiasm for the struggle to shape the future through computer technology. We hope that he will serve an even more active role as a computer industry revolutionary in the years ahead.

His speech inspired us and reaffirmed in us the importance of students participating in the challenges that lie ahead.