This year, I once again served as a judge for the “SoftBank Industry-Academia Collaboration Award,” which recognizes outstanding initiatives aimed at solving regional issues by universities and other institutions participating in industry-academia collaboration projects promoted by SoftBank.

Congratulations to all the award winners.

I felt that this project entered a new phase this year.

Last year, there was a wide range of initiatives covering diverse themes such as career education, entrepreneurship education, regional revitalization, and the arts, and it seemed to me that many of these projects were taking on new challenges while exploring the question, “What can be achieved through industry-academia collaboration?”

In contrast, this year saw numerous initiatives that directly addressed the very challenges facing society.

Furthermore, cutting-edge insights and technologies—such as people flow data, generative AI, and VR—were being utilized quite naturally as means of solving problems.

In that sense, if last year was “the year that demonstrated the potential of industry-academia collaboration,” I feel that this year was “the year that saw industry-academia collaboration move into the stage of social implementation.”

Furthermore, a common thread among all these initiatives was that the students were not merely learners, but were actively engaged as problem-solvers addressing social issues.

Engaging in dialogue with local residents, identifying issues, devising solutions using technology, and actually implementing them in society—isn’t this kind of experience exactly the kind of learning that will be required in the years to come?

Precisely because we are living in an era of rapid AI advancement, what is required of humans is the ability to identify challenges, collaborate with diverse people, and bring new value to society.

This award-winning project provided a glimpse into what learning might look like in the future.

Another thing that made a strong impression on me was the idea that “we’re building the future from the local community.”

As each region tackled its own unique challenges, models emerged that could be scaled nationwide. Solving local challenges has, in effect, become a prototype for the society of the future.

I hope to view this award not as a goal, but as a starting point, and to continue developing our activities while engaging even more communities and people (*^^*)

Everyone at SoftBank who has supported this initiative is amazing, too!!!