2024/10/3

On Wednesday, October 2, DDI Corporation (now KDDI Corporation) Founder Sachio Senmoto gave a lecture as part of the "Global Engagement & Peace" course in the Department of Global Tourism, Faculty of Global Engagement, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies (KUFS).

Senmoto is originally from Nara Prefecture and cofounded DDI (modern-day KDDI) in 1984 together with Kazuo Inamori, who is also the founder of KYOCERA Corporation. KDDI is one of Japan's largest telecommunications operators. Thereafter, Mr. Senmoto went on to found EMOBILE Limited (now Ymobile Corporation) in 2005 and other companies, making him a multi-organization founder as well as a successful industrialist and educator.

For his two-part lecture as part of the KUFS course, he first explained the importance of monitoring the changes and trends of the world, and then went on to discuss the traits required of successful leaders in the coming years. This was followed by a Q&A session, during which he gave clear and readily understandable answers to student questions including "What advice do you have for current students who want to become entrepreneurs?," "What is one saying or piece of advice that changed your view on life?," and "Why did you decide to found companies in an industry with such intimidating rivals?"

Students as well as teachers and parents in attendance jotted down notes while listening with rapt attention to the experiences and ideas of this unique guest speaker, who is a top-class, global-scale business leader.

To conclude his lecture, Mr. Senmoto read a work by Buddhist poet Shinmin Sakamura, titled, "The Bottom of the Foot Is Noble." He then offered the students some encouraging advice: "If you only pursue money, then you will never have enough. You only live one life. Therefore, you must take big risks in order to create new value and change our society. This is the kind of drive you must have going forward."

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