[No. 236] Daisuke Fujita

I am Daisuke Fujita, an announcer for Nippon TV.

First, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Masafumi Hagiwara of the Department of Information and Computer Science, who retired this year, for recommending me to contribute to the Keio University alumni column.

I jumped from the world of science and technology into the world of professional announcing. At my core is an unchanging passion: "I want to create things that do not yet exist in the world."

I would be happy if this serves as a catalyst to move the hearts of those aiming for the Faculty of Science and Technology, showing them that such encounters and dreams are possible.

This year marks my 20th year in the profession of communication. My source of energy is the "power to find interest in what doesn't exist and create it," which I cultivated in the sciences. This is heavily influenced by the philosophy of craftsmanship I learned from Professor Hagiwara, who was active at the forefront of sensibility and AI research during my university days.

Thinking back, I encountered words that changed my life in the ending of the movie "Back to the Future Part III" when I was in elementary school. It was a line by Dr. Doc Brown: "Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one."

I believe the conviction that "I can freely draw my own future" has shaped my life.

Originally, I was a humanities-oriented person who loved writing poetry and haiku. However, I hit a wall with mathematics during high school entrance exams. I decided to face math head-on, thinking, "Since this is a subject others avoid, I'll master it." By making it my strength, I passed the exam for Keio Senior High School. Mathematics created a major turnaround for me.

During high school, professors from the Faculty of Science and Technology came to teach after-school classes. I remember being particularly moved by learning about "Artificial Intelligence" in a course by Professor Yūichirō Anzai. After the lecture, the professor encouraged me, saying, "If you, with your humanities sensibilities, master the logic of science, you will become a wonderful person," and "I want you to break down the walls between science and humanities." My heart raced.

"I want to challenge things no one else is doing!"

The professor's words were what made me decide to enter the Faculty of Science and Technology.

At university, I joined the Hagiwara Laboratory without hesitation. Professor Hagiwara was well-known at the time in the field of "Sensibility Ergonomics," which gives computers human sensibilities, and I could immediately see what I wanted to do.

My research theme was "Image Analysis for Supporting the Visually Impaired." It involved recognizing pictograms in the city to create a walking support system. I spent my days at the lab battling with a computer until midnight and watching the sunrise while eating cup noodles, but they are happy memories.

At the time, image analysis generally used the computationally complex Fourier transform. Looking at the computer heating up and taking time to process, I felt, "The machine seems to be having a hard time. Isn't there a simpler way?"

"If the calculation is difficult, then just don't make it calculate."

I came up with a reverse idea. I devised a unique algorithm where each pixel drawing the image declares its own color to reveal the "edges" (boundaries), and the processing speed improved dramatically! It is an unforgettable memory how Professor Hagiwara shared in my joy.

At the same time, my passion was directed toward "people." During the day, I visited visually impaired individuals and spent my time conducting interviews. What did they find inconvenient? What would be useful? We talked about a happy future. I believed that researchers shouldn't just sit in a room reading books and thinking they understand; only by gathering real voices can one develop truly useful systems.

I wanted to create things with passion to help people in need and bring out smiles! I believe my interest in listening and creating led to my joining Nippon TV in 2005.

After joining the company, I have made various attempts to utilize my "science self" in my work as an announcer. In particular, the experience I was able to apply at the broadcast site of the Hakone Ekiden, a national event, is a great badge of honor for me.

At the time, it was customary for announcers to stay up all night manually inputting race data to create thick broadcast materials. Since not a single mistake was allowed, we would confirm everything out loud repeatedly. I thought, "How wonderful would it be if we could spend that input time on the time used to create words?" So, with the spirit of "creating what doesn't exist myself" cultivated at university, I developed software to automate numerical processing and data entry during the gaps in my daily reporting and distributed it to my seniors and juniors.

As a result, the all-night input work disappeared, and the way we worked changed. Because I was a communicator who knew the field and also had programming knowledge, I was able to design a "system specialized for announcers." Programming at the Faculty of Science and Technology became a powerful weapon even in the work of an announcer, which at first glance seems to have no relation.

While working as an announcer at the TV station, I still enjoy the "invention of words" every day.

On daily news programs, I go through trial and error to take stories about politics, the economy, and international affairs from reporters and deliver them in my own easy-to-understand words. Also, on "Tokoro-san no Megaten!", which conveys science in a fun way, I am involved in everything from reporting to studio commentary, exploring "words that can be enjoyed from a child's perspective" every day.

For an announcer, appearing on screen is only about 10% of the total work; over 90% is spent on steady reporting and preparation.

In terms of a researcher, this could be rephrased as the presentation versus the preparation and basic research leading up to the announcement.

This attitude toward work is deeply connected to the spirit of Nippon TV's corporate motto, "Ingenuity." In the past, even when live broadcasting the Hakone Ekiden was said to be "technically impossible," my seniors invented their own transmission technologies and made the impossible possible. Just as I was taught by my seniors when I was a newcomer to "think of introductory phrases that are easy to understand even for first-timers," I continue to invent "ways of communicating." Paraphrasing technical terms, finding the one word that makes an athlete shine... my mind is always in full rotation.

To me, an announcer is the "anchor"—the final runner who delivers the message to the viewers. I feel great joy in continuing to create something from nothing every day to communicate in an interesting and easy-to-understand way.

The origin of this way of thinking is undoubtedly the spirit of "let's create what doesn't exist" that I learned at the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology.

I want to continue making inventions that enrich people's lives on the stage of the media.

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