―Please tell us about how you got started in the business.

I was running a company that handled data processing related to small-sized precision meters for use with waste products. I then moved on to enter the waste management world where I was involved with data processing related to large truck scales. To keep up with the needs of the times and customer requirements, the business has transformed into what it is today, through continuous new development and the taking on of new challenges.

The first transformation period was our expanding from a small-sized precision meter data processing company to a large-sized meter data handling company. The background to this was Japan’s framing of legislation for the industry, designed to make Japan a recycling society. Taking this as a business opportunity, we developed Kankyo Shogun, a business software product for waste processing companies that is designed to work in tandem with truck scales. Although at that time it was a really big challenge for our small company to take on, thanks to it we were able to lay the foundation of our current business.

The processing industry is part of the waste product downstream market. Upon acquiring top share in the processing industry we then moved into the waste discharge industry, which is part of the upstream market. Our aim was to successfully expand from offering points of service to blanket service. Creating an alliance with a major trading firm at that time allowed our company to start doing business with a large Japanese steel company. This gave us the chance to do business with major companies in other industries, too, such as manufacturing, power, fast food, and logistics.

The reason why we were able to expand from offering points of service to blanket service is because all of our employees adhered to the trial and error process and took on repeated challenges. In the future, we aim to expand our business and extend that blanket overseas.

Even for our company, we are in the era of global business expansion. Therefore, I would like young people to keep taking on bold challenges and reach further out into the world.

―I see. This means that your company actively hires young employees that are recent university graduates or have already started their careers, right? What kind of people do you have working for you company?

Definitely, we need people who think outside the box rather than confining themselves to preconceived notions. This is because our work involves creating a new infrastructure in responding to the needs of society.

We are also proactively hiring foreign workers since we currently have software development centers located in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and Hangzhou, China. Although such hiring is now for these software development centers, we want to hire people that have the power to take on challenges in new business areas, with these development centers serving as core locations.

―Please tell us about your company’s overseas business development and your vision for the future.

Industrial waste set-ups and systems in Japan are of very high quality, so we aim for the horizontal development of these systems overseas while optimizing venous physical distribution globally. This is a business area with really great potential.

In addition, we are looking at the possibilities of global development in the creation of added value through optimized recycling with our company’s systems at the core. We look ahead to reworking societies throughout Asia to make them recycling based, and to matching waste products discharged throughout Asia with waste processing technology and waste processing businesses.

While contributing to sound and appropriate waste management in Japan, our company wants to become a global business with a foothold in Asia.