1. R&D Website
In June of 2024, our team of three people won a company-wide new business challenge award. Thereafter, I spent the latter half of 2024 in Kenya spearheading the project, before returning to Tokyo in January 2025.
Our efforts to implement a new business idea in Kenya were featured on Hitachi’s R&D website in November of 2025, and later, we were briefly highlighted on the global home page for about a month!
Read part 1 here and part 2 here.
“Make a Difference!” is Hitachi Group’s internal business plan contest. It aims to transform ideas from employees into viable businesses and drive innovation. Team Uwezo, comprising three members from Hitachi’s Research & Development Group, won the Gold Ticket (top prize) in fiscal 2023 and is now working toward commercializing their business concept.
The team proposed a solution that leverages Kenya’s private healthcare databases to tackle lifestyle-related diseases affecting people in Africa. How did they confront the social challenges of a rapidly developing Africa, and how did they formulate their business plan? Chief Researcher Kenichiro Yamada, Design Lead Satoko Hinomizu, and Researcher Harriet Ocharo of the Research & Development Group reflect on their journey so far.
2. Hitachi Academy’s Note
In July of 2025, Hitachi Academy held an event to raise awareness about Sustainable Development Goals. There, they screened the documentary “The Plight of Single Mothers in Japan”, in which I was one of the single mothers interviewed. Afterwards, we had a very passionate panel discussion about the issues highlighted in the documentary and how together, we can work towards addressing them. Key among them were legislative changes and the improvement of the working culture to support parents in Japan, and especially single parents.
The write up is in Japanese, but you can easily use machine translation. Here is the link.
3. 2027 PLEDGES Video on LinkedIn
In 2025, I was also the D in Hitachi’s Sustainability Pledges video on LinkedIn! D for Diverse Perspectives!
4. PIVOT! CEO Chat with Hitachi CEO Tokunaga
As if that was not enough for my media appearances :), I was also among the 15 employees selected to take part in a business show called PIVOT that discusses business, science, etc mainly on YouTube.
I really should start charging the PR department for an appearance fee!
The Q&A was in Japanese, but I could ask my question in either English or Japanese. I ended up lost between the two, but eventually the words did tumble out of my mouth. I asked about the career progress of foreign workers in Japan. It’s very difficult to get promoted internally as a foreigner in Japan, and senior foreign executives at Hitachi are almost exclusively brought in from overseas, including Lorena Dellagiovanna, possibly the first female senior VP and executive officer, who used to work at Hitachi in Italy. The CEO didn’t really answer my question directly, but if you are confident in your Japanese ability, you can watch the video from around the 24th minute.
The video caption is a typical YouTube caption: Hitachi President vs. Uncompromising Employees: “The ‘big company disease’ hasn’t been cured” / Why NVIDIA and OpenAI chose Hitachi / Is the job-based personnel system a success? / Stock price increased fivefold in 10 years / GAFAM are not rivals [CEO Chat]
I guess the Fiscal Year 2025 (April 2025 to March 2026) was a busy year for me, media-wise.
Let’s see what FY 2026 will bring. Since it is only April 2nd, allow me to wish Happy FY2026 to those who celebrate!