Yoshitake Matsumoto, President, Japan

When I became a member of society, I got a job at a company whose core business was the electronic measuring equipment business, so there were many terms related to measurement in the company. I, myself was in a somewhat minor business computer department, but I had experience using the BASIC language to process data from instruments and accumulate it in a file, and to create programs that output the results of analysis to plotters.

We would like to create innovation and promote digital transformation in Japan, regardless of the current status quo bias.

The momentum for digital transformation in industry, society and government is increasing. Recently, there is a proposal by the Japanese government to establish a digital agency, but I think there is a sense of crisis that Japan is lagging behind the trend of global digital transformation.

In the COVID-19 crisis, Stratus’ top priority is the health and safety of our employees, customers and partners. This is a declaration by David Laurello, CEO of the U.S. headquarters. We also thoroughly communicate through opportunities for internal and external communication.

This year, COVID-19 has had a major impact on people’s lives around the world. I think that there were many people who canceled graduation ceremonies, trips, etc. At Stratus, too, we are changing the way we work so far, such as changing our face-to-face meetings to online meetings. There are inconveniences, but things that I thought I could not do until now can be managed by trying them.

Various discussions are underway, such as the revision of the Course of Study and the change of English tests in university entrance examinations, but I am concerned about English education. By the way, there is an opinion that solid English ability is cultivated from “reading ability”. Communication with people from all over the world is now indispensable in various scenes, but how can you acquire the solid English skills necessary for that purpose?

Even at this age, I feel that there is still a lot to learn. When you belong to the IT industry, you are often exposed to new technologies and trends, so you have no choice but to feel that way. What I felt I needed to study this time was marketing automation.

At the time of this writing, the Rugby World Cup qualifying pool is in place. After the opening ceremony, we watched the opening match between Japan and Russia, the match between New Zealand and South Africa, in which the top contenders suddenly clashed, and the match between Japan and Ireland, which was reported in Japan and abroad as “Shizuoka’s Shock”.

I thought a little about the transformation of group sports into professional leagues. The trigger was the concept of a professional league revealed by Mr. Kiyomiya, who became the vice president of the Japan Rugby Union, and the news of Mercari’s transformation of J1 Kashima Antlers into a subsidiary of J1 Soccer announced on July 30.

If I were to become a new member of society in the age of Reiwa, what would I do? I thought about it for a moment. Although he spent about 30 years each in the Showa and Heisei periods, he certainly had the experience of becoming a new member of society full of hope and anxiety a long time ago.