Message from the President July.2022

Experiencing a period of significant changes such as digitalization and decarbonization, countries around the world have clearly defined priority areas for investment and are committed to solving social issues in a timely manner. In Japan, the Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2022 (“Basic Policy 2022”) was approved by the government on June 7, 2022. One of the initiatives contemplated in the policy is the Priority Policy Program for Realizing Digital Society formulated by the Digital Agency. It aims to realize a society that can add a multiple of happiness to people’s lives by meeting the needs of each person through digitalization. When the plan is executed, the benefits of digitalization will increase further in a range of lifestyle aspects.

To realize a digital society, the strengths of private companies and engineers who are proactively involved in digital transformation (DX) are essential.

The July 2022 issue of our internal newsletter SYORYU features engineers who are actively involved in digital transformation toward solving issues for society and customers on the theme of “contributing to digital society.” Moreover, we spoke with three people who are involved in preparing the DX Report in the Commerce and Information Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry about the progress and potential in digitalization throughout the industry, the vision needed for engineers and expectations. I hope that our employees read the July edition as it highlights how digital transformation can generate new value, and does not give mere explanations about the means to take advantage of digitalization.

Automation without human intervention would be the basis for products and services in a digital society. Although we will surely enjoy a safe and convenient society, we can imagine that automation will deprive some people of jobs. Historically, jobs have been lost to changing times. Is the occupation we call "engineer" going to be stable in the future? In the design and development fields, we already have design automation software that uses accumulations of existing design and structural analysis. Moreover, I believe that, with further advances in AI, the fields in which products and services are materialized will be dominated by automation without human intervention.

Based on the above, I ask our engineers to take on challenges for work in creative fields. Only humans can handle the work of identifying potential issues of society and customers (task identifying capability) and of devising solutions (problem solving capability). Please change how you think and act in order to identify roles that only you can fulfill. It will lead to enhanced customer satisfaction and contribute to a digital society in the future.