Messages from Outside Directors

In the two years that I have served as an outside director, KDDI has fulfi lled diverse social missions, meeting society's expectations as an information telecommunications industry leader that provides social infrastructure. Amid the current COVID-19 crisis and many natural disasters, KDDI has met its obligation to proactively engage in emergency activities.
Management continues to make substantial investments to maintain information networks and develop advanced data telecommunications technologies. I evaluate these efforts and their consistency highly.
I participate in discussions with tremendous interest. I initially thought a business model should leverage real world business experience in the healthcare and materials fi elds to raise the quality of social life. But KDDI is aiming to merge information telecommunications and daily life together through virtual spaces that enrich our future lives.
Going forward, more than ever, corporate activities will be expected to contribute to the sustainability of society and I think KDDI's information telecommunications technologies can really help solve such social issues as the declining birthrate, graying population, regional disparities, and environmental problems. As an outside director, I will continue working hard to participate in discussions while constantly improving myself.

At KDDI's Board of Directors meetings, the direction of corporate strategies, management issues, and action policies is shared among all directors. In particular, outside directors actively ask questions and provide opinions to enhance medium- to long-term corporate value, fulfilling the management monitoring function.
Amid this current COVID-19 crisis, KDDI's businesses are growing in importance. I think that in all aspects of life, from business to leisure activities, people really feel that telecommunications services are an indispensable lifeline. In addition,
I feel the use of data owned by KDDI has played a large role in society mainly by helping prevent the spread of infection.
Going forward, amid new lifestyles and an accelerating transformation of society, people want KDDI to fi ll a role that exceeds the expectations of society.
KDDI is developing comprehensive services, with telecommunications at the core. To meet drastically changing social needs, swift and bold management decisions are needed in addition to steadfast efforts. As a member of the Board of Directors, which underpins those management decisions, I leverage the sense of balance and legal mind I have cultivated as a lawyer and speak from the position of being an "au" user when speaking at Board of Directors meetings.

I have engaged in information telecommunications research over many years, and I consider it an honor to be appointed as an independent outside director at KDDI, which is at the center of the information and telecommunications industry.
As a species, humans excel; and yet a single human can only eke out a precarious existence. It was only through communication that humans were able to build society and elevate themselves. Information telecommunications serve as the neural network of modern society. Using 5G services to comprehensively integrate all information into society is expected to greatly benefit humanity.
Although the word innovation is often used to refer to technological revolution, Joseph Schumpeter defined it as "new combinations" in one of his early works.
The telecommunications services provided by KDDI are a two-way combination.
By building a mechanism to circulate valuable information, it is possible to contribute to the growth and development of customers, industries, and society.
My first theme as a researcher was artificial intelligence technology. Afterward, in the internet fi eld, I promoted related technology from Japan to the Asia Pacific region. And I have recently undertaken research in cyber security. I hope to make use of my experiences for KDDI while learning many new things.