computer-scientists-from-japan

"In the future, robots will be better than humans, in one way or another"

"Within 10 years or even less. However, people have to be convinced. It is like the car, which we use, although it causes accidents and deaths. But the benefits of a car are so great that, as a society, we accept it."

"Can you be in a world that is mapped from the real world? That’s the next level. I call it virtualized reality. Virtual reality now is not virtual: it is a real world that is virtualized. The next thing is to interact with the environment and others who are virtually there. In this case, when there is a mirror in that virtual reality, you will be able to virtually see yourself in it."

"Another challenge is teleportation, but without decomposing your body and shipping it to another place, like in the movie Star Trek. It is done with tools, like drones, that give you a reaction force through your body to your legs so that you can teleport, visually and acoustically, and physically interact in real time."

"The core business line of Aitoz is manufacturing workwear. The workwear business line is further divided into 4 different segments, which are personnel work, office work, school uniform, and working wear. Among those, Aitoz is specialized in every workwear segment except the school uniform. However, in Japan, Aitoz is the only workwear manufacturer that is capable of covering most of the segments."

"Based on the sales variations and product diversification, our company is the number one in Japan. Even though we produce all types of workwear, currently we are emphasizing manufacturing delivery and logistics wear, also procurement workwear for the manufacturing sites. If you go to any manufacturing sites in Japan, you will easily find our products."

"Our companies do not sell directly to individuals. We have an intermediate company that sells the product for us. Our intermediaries are called ‘leaders’ because we sincerely think that they are the ones who lead our product to the final customers. For the intermediaries, we give them the bulk of our catalog that illustrates the scene and the workwear. The catalog varies from the workwear, nursing homes and care homes, and by only by flipping the catalog, you could find the best fit products."

"The focus of my research is on how humans can interface with computers in a more engaging and inspiring way. You can’t grab pixels on a computer screen with your hands or have your body physically interact with a digital presentation because pixels are intangible."

"The work of my group at MIT focuses on how to make bits tangible. Our work includes something called Radical Atoms, a computationally transformable and reconfigurable material that is bidirectionally coupled with an underlying digital model (bits) so that dynamic changes in physical form can be reflected in digital states in real-time and vice versa."

"The applications we are developing focus on matter and hacking Radical Atoms to enable changes in the physical world. To simplify, today, there are two materials used for design frozen atoms and intangible pixels."

"Our vision is that Radical Atoms will serve as third materials dynamic, physical, and computational materials that transform and change properties driven by digital data and computation that can do all sorts of crazy stuff."

"My Radical Atoms vision was selected as the overarching theme of Ars Electronica Festival 2016 with the subtitle The Alchemists of our Time. We are determined to become the alchemists of today. The future we are designing will enable objects such as a bed, a couch, or car seats to change shape dynamically. If, for example, you are sitting on a couch and your spouse joins you, the couch could automatically extend its shape to make room for a couple."

"My interest was then shifted to algorithmic aspects of combinatorial optimization, in particular dynamic programming and branch and bound algorithms."

"In this period, R. Karp wrote a fascinating paper that formulated dynamic programming as a finite automaton with a monotone cost function. I was quite excited with this observation, and I wrote a number of papers in this line. Many of them are included in my book Theory of Combinatorial Optimization written in Japanese and published from the Inst. of Electronics and Communication Engineers of Japan."

"I also made similar study on branch and bound algorithms in a general framework. My results in this area are summarized in the book Enumerative Approaches to Combinatorial Optimization published from Baltzer as two volumes in Annals of Operations Research."

"In the middle seventies, S. Cook and R. Karp came up with a notion of NP-completeness, creating a new field of computational complexity. This has immediately attracted many researchers, and I was among the early people who applied the theory to many problems."

"I spent most of the time in the eighties developing algorithms for integer programming, fractional programming, scheduling problems and others, and proving NP-hardness of various combinatorial optimization problems. Because the structure of graphs and networks can be found in many problems in the real world, topics such as network flows, cuts, connectivities also became my favorite subjects, which we studied mainly from algorithmic point of view."

"In this area, H. Nagamochi is a powerful partner and, with him, we recently published Algorithmic Aspects of Graph Connectivity from Cambridge University Press."

"From the nineties to the first decade of the new century, my research interest has been gradually shifted to the application side, and we tried to develop heuristic algorithms for various combinatorial optimization problems."

"In these years, local-search based heuristic algorithms, now called metaheuristics, became popular, although they do not have solid theoretical basis. These algorithms include genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, tabu search and so forth. As it is very complicated and time consuming to develop good metaheuristic algorithms, we were inclined to target those problems as general as possible, so that our products can be used by many people to solve their problems."

"For this purpose we have chosen such standard problems as constraint satisfaction problem, resource constrained project scheduling problem, vehicle routing problem and generalized assignment problem, to develop metaheuristic algorithms. Some of these turned out to be very useful and are currently used by many practitioners, partly because our codes are included in the commercial package NUOPT released from Mathematical Systems Inc."

"I am glad to see these outcomes. Jointly with M. Yagiura, we wrote a textbook Combinatorial Optimization - Metaheuristics published from Asakura Shoten."

"TPC Trillium Parameter Consortium is a worldwide effort to try to get the organizations that are interested in pursuing science in this way, using the latest and greatest AI technologies, to basically pursue AI for science. And the organization basically includes many research institutions, supercomputing centers, etc. that are basically pursuing this path. And from Japan, we have RCS."

"We are one of the founding organizations, but we also have several other institutions, such as the University of Tokyo, AIC, and so forth, that have become members because they also have a common goal of pursuing and advancing science through the use of advanced AI."

"I know that by us federating together, the whole is greater than the sum. So that allows us to get together and organize, share the resources, be it human resources, machine resources, knowledge, techniques, etc., hold meetings, conferences, and share our expertise that allows, and will allow us to move this AI science agenda much faster than each of us pursuing this agenda alone."

"I want to cooperate in the gradual expansion of sections while thoroughly ensuring quality control, and contribute to offing two birds with one stone by solving labor shortages and tackling energy conservation."

"there are infrastructures surrounding these models, being able to pursue the launch tools interface to the foundation models, and so forth. But these tools are also becoming not just the properties of closed source enterprises, but rather the open source versions available."

"Since in science and its endeavors, we published open results. So it’s quite natural that all these efforts, the infrastructure, all the infrastructure, as well as the publication results as a result of applying AI to the sciences, will become open."

"Modern science has really progressed because of openness. So all the open source movements and even AI. Of course, there’s a battle between closed models, but there are open models that have achieved capabilities that would match those of closed models nowadays."

"Many people never even thought about storing data for thousands of years. This may sound like a dream. But we're thinking hundreds of millions of years."

"The most important thing is to maintain the quality of the product. Of course if it’s too expensive it doesn’t mean anything so we have to focus on efficiency and kaizen constant improvement to eliminate waste at our plants in order to make quality products at a competitive price."

"So the price is the result of our efforts at improving efficiency. Emerging countries are very aggressive with their cheaper labor cost and we have to survive against them."

"We've been incorporating automation in our factories within Japan that manufacture cam units and the oilless bearing units. But the purpose is not to automate for automation’s sake alone. We needed to have efficiency in terms of production at lower cost, so we introduced automation within that new framework of improved efficiency and once we’ve established the system in Japan we will spread it throughout our factories globally."

"I knew I was designing something disruptive and innovative, but never imagined bitcoin would have this level of adoption in such a short period of time."

"It’s the technology that powers bitcoin, the truly revolutionary part of this invention, everyone is fascinated by blockchain."

"Osaka University is expected to become a place to promote co-creation with diverse stakeholders in society in order to create a new society by coalescing the intelligence and wisdom cultivated at OU. This is essential for achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and for addressing global issues, such as green recovery and carbon neutral, as well as for building a sustainable and resilient society to protect human lives from disasters and infectious diseases."

"Also, as its motto Live Locally, Grow Globally states, OU is expected to solve local and global issues and create a new society through co-creation with society. This new society will be one in which people can stay active longer and enjoy happy and fulfilling lives while respecting each other's individuality, that is, a society in which people can find meaning and purpose in life."

"I am not really interested in Flash as a mere animation tool. I use Flash because of its programming possibilities, ability to integrate with graphical images, good browser compatibility and because it is easy to use."

"Some people feel that designers are often drawn to Flash because of its multimedia capabilities at the expense of other demands of a client's brief. In other words, Flash is often misused or used to build sites where other technologies might have served the client's needs better."

"I agree with some of it. In the light of current Web systems, creating a site with ordinary HTML and XML technology ensures effective information media. Up to now, developing a site by using Flash meant that sacrifices had to be made in other areas. We must bear this in mind. We should also remember that Flash is a mere tool like any other Web technology. It is important to know how to use tools freely, but dependency on a specific tool leads to meaningless results."

"On the other hand, I feel strongly that where the Web is used as media, it should always involve new experiences and excitement. I like to satisfy my desire to present something interesting that has not been seen before, even if it is at a cost. When I work with a client who feels the same, I will go ahead and do what I want to do. Each case is of course judged on its own merits."

"Research into machine translation and speech recognition has a long history, but both fields were being developed independently until recently. Looking back at the history of each field briefly, I believe that Japanese researchers have contributed a great deal to the development of machine translation. In the early 1980s, Japan was leading the world in machine translation and it still remains a driving force. Translation from Japanese to English and vice versa is very challenging, but the widespread international use of English has given Japan no choice but to grapple with the job of improving its translation technologies. This necessity has caused quick progress in both theory and technology in machine translation in Japan."

"In speech recognition, the U.S. has clearly been the leader in developing world-leading technologies. Research in Japan started as early as 1957 or 1958. Kyoto University has been conducting a broad array of studies in the fields of speech and language processing. These and other Japanese research have made great strides in the fields. By the middle of the 1980s both machine translation and speech recognition had reached fairly mature stages. Many researchers began recognizing the benefits of studying both fields together with a view of integrating them into a single system."

"During the preparation stage of ATR's establishment around 1984 and 1985, we, the members of the ATR Basic Concept Examination Committee, designed a new research approach, which initiated the integration of the two separate fields into one in order to create a comprehensive speech translation system. In 1986, ATR Interpreting Telephony Research Laboratories was founded in line with this new research approach and offered a very attractive work environment for many researchers. During the 14 years since its establishment, ATR has produced a steady stream of impressive achievements, which convinces me that our original decision was correct."

"There are two key initiatives. Firstly, our sustained investment in talent development over the medium to long term stands out. With a clear focus on enhancing operational capabilities, we anticipate direct growth trajectories. These cultivated human resources serve as catalysts for innovation, fostering partnerships and collaborations with external entities."

"In pursuit of sustainable development goals (SDGs), we’ve collaborated with Kaneka Corporation, a chemical company, to introduce plastic free guest room amenities, leveraging their technology. Additionally, through a strategic human resource alliance with MOL (Mitsui OSK Lines LTD), we now have the capacity to recruit international talent. Our outward looking approach to business alliances consistently yields innovative outcomes."

"Fujita Kanko, primarily a hotelier with a focus on the food and beverage sector, shares historical ties with Tokyu Group. Such partnerships, especially with entities sharing similar backgrounds, serve as conduits for embracing diversity. Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo, originally a Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts property, underwent a transformation, reflecting the dynamics of foreign capital management. By exchanging insights gained from such experiences, mutual learning thrives."

"Contemporary discourse underscores the significance of non financial statements. From a financial standpoint, there’s a notable shift towards evaluating investments in human capital and intangible assets such as brand equity and organizational robustness. Within the hotel industry, gauging customer response, satisfaction, employee morale, and corporate social and environmental responsibility are pivotal metrics. Attentive listening to customer feedback and subsequent business enhancements are pivotal. *Organizational success hinges on fostering diversity, both in terms of employee demographics and customer base. Given the discerning nature of Tokyu Hotels’ clientele, accommodating diverse needs necessitates a workforce that appreciates and celebrates individuality, a facet integral to our success."

"I am one of the most active researchers in the field of information security, which supports the safety and security of the information society, and has also served as an editor of international standardization standards."

"I have been active as a pioneer of elliptic curve cryptography, and my world-first mixed coordinate, MNT (Miyaji-Takano-Nakabayashi) curve was adopted as an international standard by ISO/IEC."