Position Statement
The IEICE covers one of Japan’s key industrial areas and a scholarly field with the goal of creating and cultivating future advances. The field, in combination with mechanical and medical engineering technologies, and ICT services, keeps adding new value to our society. However, we are confronted by the rapid paradigm changes in technologies, deficiencies in appealing to young generations, relentless competition among foreign institutes which have been attracted by recent advances in ICT. Overcoming such difficulties while maintaining the leading international position demands continuous endeavor. My aim is to advance the globalization of the institute, to strengthen it as a global source of wisdom, to strengthen the remedies that prevent industrial people from leaving the IEICE, and to lessen the burden of volunteers who contribute so much to the IEICE and make their activities more fruitful through further enhancement of ICT utilization and simplification of decision-making procedures.

Biography
Ken-ichi Sato received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tokyo. He is currently a Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University. Before joining the university in April 2004, he has been a leading researcher in the field of telecommunications in NTT. His contributions extend to serving on numerous committees of international conferences including OFC and ECOC. He served as Vice President of IEICE, a council member of IEICE, a director of the editorial board of IEICE, and so on.
He received the Young Engineer Award, the Excellent Paper Award, the Achievement Award, and the Distinguished Achievement and Contributions Award from the IEICE of Japan, and the Best Paper Awards twice from the IEICE Communications Society. He was also the recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon from Japan’s Cabinet Office. He is an NTT R&D Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and IEICE Fellow.