May 17 marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union.
This year, the ITU Association of Japan (ITU-AJ) marked the occasion by holding the 46th Celebration for World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, with over 260 participants from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ICT industry.
At the celebration each year, the ITU-AJ holds an award ceremony to recognize those who have furthered the aims of WTISD by helping to raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies, and by finding ways to bridge the digital divide. This is a historic award ceremony, spanning 42 years since it was first held.
The highest honor, the “Minister’s Award,” was presented to Dr. Kazuo MURANO , a former chairman of one of Japan’s premier international ICT R&D organizations, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd.
The “Special Achievement Award” was presented to Ms. Christel TAKIGAWA, a famous TV newscaster, for her outstanding contribution to the successful bid for the 2020 Olympics, which will be a great opportunity to demonstrate the appeal of the country’s latest infocommunications technology.
Other ITU-AJ Awards, in the form of trophies, were also presented to prominent figures in the fields of standardization and international cooperation, as listed below.
Awards for accomplishment in the field of ICT (international standardization) were presented to ten winners, while awards for accomplishment in the field of international cooperation were given to seven winners. Encouragement awards were presented to seventeen winners in the field of ICT and three in the field of international cooperation, in expectation of their on-going contributions in their respective fields.
Winners of the Awards Ms. Christel TAKIGAWA
List of the winners of the Awards is as follows:
MIC Minister’s Award
• Kazuo MURANO, FUJITSULABORATO RIES (retired)
ITU-AJ Award: Special Achievement Award
• Christel TAKIGAWA, PHONICS
ITU-AJ Award: Accomplishment in the Field of ICT
• Masaharu ARAKI, DOCOMO TECHNOLOGY
• Yoshio HONDA, ERICSSON JAPAN
• Yoshinori ISHIKAWA, HITACHI
• Nobuyuki KAWAI, KDDI
• Takashi KOSHIMIZU, NTT DOCOMO
• Kazuo MURAKAWA, NTT EAST
• Radio Wave Propagation Standardization
Promotion Team, SOFTBANKMOBILE
• Shigeru TOMITA, NTT
• Kaoru WATANABE, NHK
• Tetsuya YOKOTANI, MITS UBISHI ELECTRIC
ITU-AJ Award: Accomplishment in the Field of International Cooperation
• Yoshio ITO, NTT (retired)
• Hideki NAKAMURA, NTT (retired)
• Masaharu NONAKA, BHN
• NTT VIETNAM CORPORATION
• Project for Urgent Improvement of
Communication Networks in Republic of the
Union of Myanmar,
SUMITOMO CORPORATION ,
NTT COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION ,
NEC CORPORATION
• Koichi SENOUE, NHK (retired)
• Yuki UMEZAWA, KDDI FOUNDATION
Encouragement Award: Field of ICT
• Lan CHEN, NTT DOCOMO
• Suyong EUM, NICT
• Yasuyuki HATAKAWA, KDDI
• Takanori HIGUCHI, SKY PERFECT JSAT
• Yasuo ISHIGURE, NTT
• Takato KAWAMURA, NHK
• Kimihiko KAZUI, FUJITSU LABORATORIES
• Atsushi MINOKUCHI, NTT DOCOMO
• Homare MURAKAMI, NICT
• Takuya OHARA, NTT
• Shinya OTSUKI, NTT
• Anand Raghawa PRASAD, NEC
• Hitoshi SANEI, NHK
• Yumiko TAKANO, KDDI
• Hiroshi TAKECHI, LAC
• Hiroyuki TSUJI, NICT
• Takeshi YAMAMOTO, NEC
Encouragement Award: Field of International Cooperation
• Fumie FUKUSHIMA, BHN
• Hidetoshi SAITO, KDDI
• Yasuji SAKAGUCHI, NHK