[No. 230] Yasushi Onda

Thank you for your interest in the Faculty of Science and Technology and my column. I hope this provides some hints for those of you considering entrance exams or further education on what to pursue at university.

First, let me introduce myself. I graduated from the Department of Applied Physics and Physico-Informatics about 20 years ago. Currently, I am involved in several jobs, including my own business, which can be broadly divided into two fields. One is consulting for corporations, and the other is the space field, primarily focused on educational institutions. In the space field, I am in charge of lecturing on "Space Systems Engineering" for students at the Graduate School of Science and Technology and the Graduate School of System Design and Management at Keio University. I also give lectures and workshops on Earth observation using satellite data for middle and high school students at KidZania Tokyo and schools nationwide, and I have published a book titled "The Easiest Textbook for Satellite Data Business." Furthermore, until a few years ago, I worked as a part-time invited staff member at JAXA, promoting space business in the corporate sector.

At first glance, the two areas of "corporate consulting" and "space education for middle and high school students" seem loosely related, but they are both themes I am passionate about, and I feel happy in a work style where I can freely tackle various projects. Sometimes, like my work at JAXA, space and business are directly linked. The prototype for this way of working—tackling multiple jobs according to my interests—was built during my time at Google. However, I believe the interests themselves were cultivated during my university days and continue to this day.

When I was working at Google, my main job was consulting, planning and building new solutions for companies using the latest technology. As some of you may know, Google has a system called the "20% rule," where you can spend 20% of your time on initiatives you deem important outside of your main job. Of course, as it is a company, there is the rigor of having to produce solid results in your main job before tackling the 20%, but the themes were free. I utilized this system to work on promoting the international adoption of a product called Google Earth Engine, which can analyze satellite data, together with partners such as international organizations, universities, NGOs, and NPOs. The experience of utilizing the 20% rule at that time has led to my current way of working, where I freely pursue multiple jobs of different natures based on my own interests and customer needs.

In my case, I believe it was during my university days that I deepened my desire to work in a global environment and my childhood curiosity about space. For your reference, I would like to introduce a few of my experiences as a student.

Immediately after entering university, I felt a sense of a free world expanding before me that I could explore infinitely. At the Hiyoshi Campus, countless circles (student clubs) were recruiting new students, and I could easily try my hand at new fields. For example, unless you are at an extremely large high school, you probably know most of your classmates, but at university, no matter how many different communities I participated in, there were always diverse people I didn't know, and I remember my perspective expanding significantly.

Since I was interested in international exchange, I initially focused my activities on such circles. However, while there were many places to interact mainly with international students at the university, I noticed a group that was being forgotten: students at Japanese language schools. At the time, many international students came to Japan early before entering a Japanese university to study for about a year at a Japanese language school, which acted like a preparatory school. Despite having left their home countries and jumped into Japan, these students had limited opportunities to interact with Japanese people.

So, I gathered people who shared the same awareness of the issue and passion, including not only friends from Keio University but also from other universities, and started a circle to interact with Japanese language school students, serving as the first representative. We visited Japanese language schools scattered around Takadanobaba at the time to recruit students and were able to promote interaction between many international students and Japanese students. Although the circle itself no longer exists, many friendships continue among the members even now. Also, my desire to be involved with various people globally became clear, which I believe led to my work at Google and my MBA in the United States.

Looking back, I think I was helped by my position and environment as a student of Keio University, which allowed me to collaborate with many people. In this way, university days are a perfect opportunity to view as a period of free experimentation and to actively challenge things you are interested in without fear of failure. Recently, student-only programs by companies and entrepreneurship support are also substantial, so I think utilizing them is one option. Whether you succeed or not, the learning and friends you gain will be a precious asset.

Another thing I want to tell you is that even if it doesn't lead to a career immediately after graduation, it is good to value your interests over the long term. For example, I have been interested in planetary exploration since I was a child, but since there was no direct laboratory in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the time, I decided to join the laboratory of Professor Akihisa Hatayama, who was conducting research on fusion plasma. This was because it had elements in common with the ion engines made famous by the asteroid explorer "Hayabusa." Professor Hatayama flexibly supported my interests, and I had guidance and cooperation from seniors and peers in the laboratory. I have many happy memories despite the hardships, such as when computer simulations that took a long time late at night would stop.

After graduating from the faculty, I went on to the Graduate School of Science at The University of Tokyo to engage in planetary exploration research. This was because at the Graduate School of Science, I could belong to and conduct research at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (now JAXA), which leads Japan's planetary exploration missions. Fortunately, at ISAS, I was assigned to the laboratory of Professor Hitoshi Mizutani, who was the president of the Japanese Society for Planetary Sciences at the time and was promoting lunar exploration missions. I conducted research on lunar remote sensing using lunar dust (regolith) brought back by Apollo 16. Incidentally, Professor Mizutani became the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Newton" after retiring, and I enjoyed reading his comments through the magazine.

Actually, I had moved away from the field of remote sensing after completing my master's degree, but that knowledge proved useful more than 10 years later when I worked on satellite data at Google. Furthermore, my work at Google led to work at JAXA and giving lectures at Keio University. In this way, if you keep holding onto your interests, they can lead to various unexpected connections and career paths.

I have introduced a bit of my experience above. I hope that through your university life, you will freely explore your interests and build a career that is uniquely yours while cherishing them.

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