Yoshitake Matsumoto, President, Japan

Recently, two articles on global online platforms and technologies almost filled the general press, which is rare. One article shared information that the local government’s Twitter account had been frozen, which impacted disaster prevention activities.

In the past, I didn’t trust the Japanese reading comprehension ability of translation tools, so I didn’t use many translations of Japanese sentences in English. Recently, however, I have been using Japanese to English translations, and admiring the skillful use of English phrases. As a draft, there are no complaints at all. The accuracy of translation tools has improved dramatically.

This year, for the first time in three years, we were able to hold a real event inviting our partners to the venue. Personally, I feel that it has become a daily occurrence for people to gather face-to-face and work in a real environment, both in business and private, such as participating in sporting events as athletes.
For the first time in three years, Stratus Japan was able to host and invite our partners to an in-person event. It’s great for us to be able to gather face-to-face and work together in a real environment as opposed to a virtual event – both for business and work as well as in private.

September started with a business trip to Kyushu. This is an appliance product promotion activity built by a solution partner in Fukuoka Prefecture and Stratus. We filmed an interview-style video explaining how Stratus’ ztC Edge and partner company’s manufacturing instruction application products can contribute to solving customer issues.

The yen has depreciated for the first time in 24 years, but when the yen depreciated last time in 1998, I was assigned to the United States. When the yen depreciated in 1998, the transfer amount was about 3/4 of the amount when I was assigned to the United States. There is debate as to whether the depreciation of the yen is good or bad. The demerit of the depreciation of the yen is the burden on households, but it also has a significant impact on business-to-business transactions. The corporate goods price index in April this year grew by about 10.0% year-on-year.

The first quarter of our fiscal year 2023 is three months from March to the end of May. By the time this blog is published, our results are almost final. Looking at the current business progress in the four regions of the world, the boom in business in the U.S. stands out. In Japan, while the economic situation is unpredictable, semiconductor-related and automobile-related investments seem to be firm.

Since Japan Stratus Technology starts in March, in the middle of March, all employees held an event online to share their aims and policies for the new year. This year, we are committed to focusing on measures to respect diversity and education to build professional careers.

The term digital transformation was first used by Swedish university professor Eric Stoltermann in a 2004 paper. What was proposed was that “the penetration of IT will change people’s lives for the better in all aspects.”

The other day, I had the opportunity to talk with Kyoko Iwasaki, a gold medalist at the Barcelona Olympics. Mr. Iwasaki stayed in California for about a year for coach training. He said there was a big difference in the way children are coaching in Japan and the United States.

I think that the new ztC Edge 200i/250i has been announced when you read this blog. Taking this opportunity, we have conducted interviews with several media outlets. Did you see it in various media?