President Gachon : Mr.Kunihiro Tanaka

 2025/08/31

■ President Gachon : Mr.Kunihiro Tanaka

President of Sakura Internet. He has also held many public offices, including as chairman of the Computer Software Association of Japan (SAJ) and chairman of the Japan Data Center Association. He is a graduate of Maizuru National College of Technology and a star of the college. He has succeeded in starting a technology-driven business and is a young leader who is driving the Japanese economy. He is a role model for iU students. Welcome.

The current situation in Japan

With the establishment of the Digital Agency, momentum has finally been created for change. The Digital Agency has two meanings. One is the execution force. The other is the momentum created by the establishment of the Digital Agency. With these two things, digitalization will progress and the number of people using it will increase. Now is the time for a large rate of change.

◆ Impact of COVID-19

Sakura Internet's situation is flat. In terms of the rate of change, Japan has always had a low degree of digitalization. As the lows rise, Sakura Internet itself will not benefit immediately, but the number of users is increasing as regular customers, so in the medium to long term things have improved a lot.

◆Sakura Internet's Challenges and Japan's Challenges

The big story is how a software company can change its current state to become a hardware company and get back to being a software company.

Sakura Internet was a disruptive innovation that arose in the early 1990s. At the time, there were almost no businesses in Japan that sold servers online by installing an open source OS on personal computers. Internet companies focused on the idea of ensuring trust with software, rather than with hardware.

To increase reliability, hardware must be constantly improved, and the tendency to place more importance on hardware than on software is a challenge in Japan, and also for Sakura Internet. We built a data center in Ishikari, Hokkaido, to run our software under the best conditions, but as the hardware gained recognition, it became a business in itself. Our essence is to create good services using the power of software, even if it is cheap.

Japan is a manufacturing nation, so whether they make things or software, they want to deliver it as if it were a contract development project. It's an extension of the analogy of things. Sakura Internet should have had an identity of making software and providing services, but it inevitably becomes about how to strengthen the hardware. How do we turn it into a software- and service-based nation? That is the challenge for Sakura Internet, and for Japan as a whole.

◆Starting a business

I thought about starting a business when I was 18. The purpose of starting a business is twofold: "means" and "ends."

I was running a server at school, which I lent to a friend. The content became popular and traffic increased. As a result, it was becoming a nuisance to have it at school, so I had to remove it. Increasing traffic means that the content has value, so my friend should be able to make a profit and pay the server fee. In fact, my friend asked me if there was any way to keep the site running, even if he was willing to pay for it. That's when I started a business as a "means."

◆School

An important step in my life without which I wouldn't have gotten to where I am today.

School is a place to meet people, things, knowledge, and careers. I hope that in five or ten years, students will look back and say that they would never have encountered these things if they hadn't come to iU .

◆Challenges facing education in Japan

The challenge is to keep looking for issues. How do we count what the school is doing well? As is the case with local governments, in communities where the public sector is stronger in contributing to society than for-profit companies, we often start with issues. However, I think it's a set of two things: developing what you can do and making it possible to do what you can't do. The educational environment will change if we take into account how to develop what the school is doing well.

◆Message for you guys

Always search for what you want to do. It's like a digestive organ. If you look for it, you will find it right away. However, I haven't seen one yet today. Humans can only see what they want to see. Even if they see something or encounter it, they often don't acknowledge it. The focus you have enriches your life. People who are willing to search for what they want to do will find more and more of what they want to do.

Another important thing is that there are things you have to do in order to do what you want to do. You can endure the things you have to do that lead to what you want to do. However, many people don't have anything they want to do, or they are bored doing what they have to do. If you can clearly find what you want to do, you will surely make an effort if it is something you have to do to get there. As a result, even if it doesn't lead to what you want to do, if you have created the next thing you want to do, you can enjoy the things you have to do.

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Cool Japan: Showa Retro

■ Cool Japan: Showa Retro 

NHK Cool Japan "Showa Retro" edition.

"Retro Cafe"

The Showa retro era overlaps with Japan's period of high economic growth.

Before the bubble burst, there was a lot of admiration for the West and the momentum to catch up and surpass it.

And the last of the analog era is Showa retro.

It was a time before the automation and computerization of today, when people were not as wealthy, and still felt the warmth of handmade items.

I think it's these aspects that attract young people who have no knowledge of the Showa era, and that make the area appealing to foreigners as well.

"fair"

This doesn't exist in other countries, does it?

"Ennichi" festivals, which create ties with temples and shrines, are a way to confirm local ties while also being connected to religion, but they are also packed with entertainment.

When I was a kid, I also went there with excitement.

It's a special space where only children can come at night, wear yukata in the summer, and enjoy food and games that can only be found at festivals.

I'm glad that it still remains even now, when the building is still an apartment building.

I want the important thing, the community ties, to be preserved.

"Showa Pop Songs"

They are all masterpieces. People are just now discovering that there are so many great Japanese songs that have connections to J-POP.

And in those days, everyone watched TV together in the living room.

Everyone was listening to the same song, everyone was facing the same direction and working hard.

That's how we all grew up.

There are no longer any songs that everyone in the country knows.

Portable music players became popular, music went digital, and music changed from "everyone's music" to "personal music."

It's an evolution, but there's also a sad side to it, and I think people are wanting to sing those songs from back then again.

Showa retro is not as old as traditional Japanese culture, but it's not cutting-edge technology either; it's the perfect middle ground between old and new Japan.

Savoring its goodness is a meaningful act of discovering a new Japan.

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President Mr. Usubi Sako

 ■President Mr. Usubi Sako

The former president of Kyoto Seika University, originally from Mali. He studied architecture in China before coming to Kyoto University. He speaks French, English, Chinese, and the Kyoto dialect. Before I became president, I went to the senior president to ask for his advice. Then he asked me to attend M1 with him, and I am doing this as homework.

◆New facility: Kyoto Seika University Meisokan

It will open in February 2022. It is scheduled to be completed in July. It was created based on three keywords: global, liberal arts, and expression. Students will be able to feel these elements through these. For example, what is global? Global lounge. IC3, an exchange hub where you can interact with people from various countries. Writing center, which provides support, especially for international students who have trouble with Japanese, and English support. There are many exhibition spaces and open spaces where students can have discussions.

The name of the room is Discussion Space. Students usually receive information one-sidedly in classrooms, but here it is not the case. I think it would be good if the process of consuming and turning that information into knowledge could take place here. This building was planned with the concept of a place where people can express themselves, encounter the global world, and consume and turn information into knowledge. When I was the president, I launched the Facilities Improvement Association and served as its chairman.

◆Experience of the President

He is the first African-born university president. It was unfortunate that there was no successor until he finished his term. Fewer than 2% of people from other countries hold university president positions in Japan .

While teaching at Kyoto Seika University, I served as dean for two terms before being elected president. I didn't have many difficulties working with everyone. However, Japanese communication has a unique style, so I sometimes felt cultural differences while communicating with others.

◆Kyoto

I've been in Kyoto for 31 years (as of 2022). Kyoto is a very interesting city.

Human scale. A graspable scale. Many things are connected. It has a rich history. But Kyoto also has a unique culture. The way people communicate and relate to each other. It's also a very innovative city, and I love new things.

You would think that a place with such a long history would be good at accepting all kinds of people, but that's not the case. When you come to Kyoto, you have to adapt to the Kyoto way. There are difficult hurdles. I made many mistakes. In terms of language. There was a gap between what was said and what was done. On the other hand, there is also depth to it. The language, the town, the houses. It's a place where there is always something to discover. It's a town that curious people will never get bored of.

◆Schools and Education

The environment surrounding education is changing. Demands on schools are becoming stricter every year. The evaluation of schools is changing. Demands from not only the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, but also parents are changing. Schools have become targets for investment.

On the other hand, I believe that schools should be learner-centered. Kyoto Seika University has a philosophy of respecting people. Students do not receive education one-sidedly, but rather help build the school together. Students develop their character based on the school.

What is required in the field of education today is something like making standardized products. But a school should be like a field. We sow seeds, look forward to seeing what sprouts will emerge, and pour love and water into them. That's what we teachers do. As teachers, we learn a lot from our students. We stay close to our students and always make eye contact. We listen to their opinions while drawing on our own experiences.

Education exists for the benefit of those who receive it. However, today schools are acting as if they exist for the benefit of educators. I want to create an educational environment that eliminates this gap.

◆Message for you guys

There are many uncertainties about the future of this world. In school, we have been taught as if there are answers to everything, but that is not the case. What we must focus on teaching is the ability to question things. When you are stuck on something, ask questions properly. Return to the basics and reset. I want you to be people who are not afraid of change. You create your own future.

★Postscript

Mari's predecessor was the legendary manga artist Keiko Takemiya. It is a university of creative expression and liberal arts. I look up to them as a missing piece of iU and as an organization that produces amazing presidents. I'd love to work on a project together.

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Cool Japan: 2.5 dimensions

 ■Cool Japan: 2.5 dimensions

NHK Cool Japan "2.5 Dimension" Edition.

A fusion of fiction and reality, a fusion of virtual and real.

It is entertainment that unfolds Japan's proud two-dimensional pop culture of manga, anime and games in a three-dimensional real space. It will continue to evolve in the future.

"musical"

There has always been a desire for the world of manga and anime to become reality, and technology has developed that allows us to recreate that world without destroying it, such as makeup and projection mapping.

And the actors are here. The good-looking actors are no longer just cosplayers.

Japan has always had a strong affinity for images, pictures, and text, and scrolls also combine pictures and text.

It's the same with manga. It doesn't feel strange when words appear on stage. It's a very Japanese theatrical space.

"Holy Land Pilgrimage"

Oarai was an area that was hit by the tsunami during the earthquake.

The town recovered from the following year when people made pilgrimages to the locations featured in the anime.

It is also a measure to revitalize local areas by showcasing the area through animation and creating tourism business.

Pilgrimages to sacred sites are also popular among inbound tourists, and are likely to become more common in the future.

The whole country wants to become a holy place.

" Esports"

Large-scale tournaments have begun to be held in Japan, and the J-League and professional baseball organizations have also begun to hold tournaments.

There are even rumors that it may become an Olympic sport.

Japan was a video game powerhouse, so it was slow to adopt e-sports, which are centered on computers and the Internet, but that is exactly why it has such high growth potential. I would like to make Japan the home of e-sports.

It jumped out of the virtual space into the real space.

I would love to see it continue to spread out into the world, and be enjoyed by people all over the world.

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President Gachon . Mr.Shinya Nakajima

■President Gachon . Mr.Shinya Nakajima

the world famous . He won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival for his commercial for Cup Noodles "Hungry?". He has also made a number of other legendary commercials, and through a strange turn of events, he became president of Tohokushinsha! Perhaps the person who was most surprised by this was himself. He is a great model of an innovator for iU students.

◆ Creator × Producer × Manager

His own management is also directing and producing. When you think of the company as a studio, how do you bring out the potential of the members? He can't be a super manager, but he can get the members excited. He is the foundation of management. His job is to help various talents bloom.

Since it's advertising, when you're given a mission and goal, the work is created based on how the team works towards that goal. I went to art school, so I have some sense of screens and images, but the ads made by so-called filmmakers are different from those made by directors like me. It's a way of making the most of everyone's strengths. The fact that we've been able to accumulate that kind of energy is the reason we've received so many awards so far is not far from the work of a president. If everyone can use their strengths, the company can achieve even greater things.

◆Commercial production work

Musashino Art University, Visual Communication Design Department. You learn the basics of visual communication, but it's a strange school. They don't give you the answers. You have to think for yourself. They give you a lot of assignments, but you have to think for yourself about the answer and the path you should take. I had never done any video.

Advertising was booming at the time. My team would randomly assign advertising assignments. I found advertising interesting. But I didn't want to work in advertising. I thought there was something different about it. I thought about design in a broad sense, and I thought design exists to make the world more interesting, and advertising is inevitably a way of leading the charge for a single company. I was a student with a slightly rebellious way of thinking.

I was the executive committee chairman of the art festival, wondering if I could make the school a little more interesting. I felt lonely because no one cooperated with me. I always wondered if this was okay, and if it would be more interesting if I did it this way. The "blue feeling" I had as a student about what would make me happiest and what would make everyone happy is still somewhere in my mind even now that I'm the CEO. I feel like my roots haven't changed.

◆ President

I thought that eventually I would become a freelancer, earn money, and drive a Mercedes.

I thought there was no way I could beat them because my seniors were so amazing. The big difference from now is that I had someone to aim for. I went after them. But I couldn't beat them. As my work piled up, the bubble started. I couldn't be the top, so I thought I'd become a freelancer and make some money! At that time, I was called by the founder, Uemura Banjiro. There was a digital video system there. The system was imported from England in 1986. At that time, a lot of American videos were coming in. Best Hits USA. Music videos such as Michael Jackson's Thriller. I didn't know how to shoot them . Just when I thought I might be able to surpass my seniors if I could do this, I was shown the digital technology and thought, This is it! At that moment, I thought, I'll do it with new digital technology! As a result, I was able to create a groundbreaking video.

Before I knew it, I had become the CEO.

Chance

When I first encountered digital technology, I thought, "This is impossible for my seniors! I'll definitely do it!" Today's young people have a lot of things like, "Nakajima-san, this is impossible." That's what defeats me. New engineering is coming, so there are more opportunities now than in the past. New technology is there to drive out the old guys.

The internet has revolutionized not only the innovation on the screen, but also the communication route for how to convey it. Data can now be used freely, and it is no longer two-dimensional but three-dimensional. You can become immersed in it. Interesting expressions are possible.

◆School

Elementary school was fun. My job was to go to school and say weird things. In middle school, I was good at studying. In high school and middle school, I got carried away with my studies, so I fell behind. I went to college every day with a gloomy mood. University is a big deal. I got more inspiration from my friends than from my teachers. Even when I gave the same proposition to students, their reactions were all different. I was shocked by their reactions and it made me feel confused. It became a base for me to think about things.

In prep schools for art schools, they rank people from best to worst at drawing. It's cruel, but if you keep doing that, you'll understand where you stand. It makes you feel depressed. If there are people who are good at illustration, you give up on the path of illustration. You think about survival. You have to express yourself somehow.

It's no fun to play with classmates in a place that has nothing to do with school assignments. You are given a proposition, and you interact with each other while exchanging reactions. School is meaningful as a place to sprinkle propositions on students. There is value in throwing a common theme at a group of people and watching their reactions. It's better to be able to see each other's reactions clearly.

Nowadays, it's good to be different from others. There's a word for it: "We've got the same thing!". To have the same thing means to lack originality. Discover your own perspective. Think differently from others.

◆Message for you guys

The most important thing is to express yourself. Try to express yourself. Try to express what you are thinking. When I go abroad, I think that what is different from Japan is that people abroad say "hello" and "thank you" a lot. I also make it a point to always say "thank you." "Hello" and "thank you" are very important when going global. Nothing will happen if you stay silent.

Being senile gives you freedom. I want you to express yourself freely.

When I have something I want to present, I can give a really good presentation.

★Postscript

He has always been a creative giant that I look up to, but he is also a management giant as the head of a large company called Tohokushinsha. I had asked him as an iU visiting professor to let me rain down creativity, but I would also like him to let me blow the winds of management.

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