WEBVTT

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Hello, everyone. How are you?

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My name is Ataka.

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I was asked to come here today
to speak about Japan's current situation,

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and our prospects for the future.

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My talk is titled "Japan Resurgence."

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(Laughter)

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Soon you will see why I chose this title.

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Let me recap our current situation.

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I think the biggest change in the world
over the past 30 years

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is that people carry portable computers.

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30 years ago, the fastest supercomputer
of the time was built by Cray.

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Now, you carry something
over 10 times faster in your pocket.

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iPhone 6 is 20 times faster.

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iPhone 7 and over is even faster.

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Everyone is carrying around 
an unbelievably fast computer.

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Bandwidth is also increasing
at a tremendous rate,

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over 1,000-fold during the last decade.

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In the 20 years since
the start of "Yahoo! Japan,"

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it has become over 10,000 times faster.

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And with the arrival of 5G,

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the speed is set to be
another 1,000 times faster.

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OK?

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Recently, the biggest packet plan
increased from 15GB to 50GB.

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In 5 to 10 years, a 1-month plan
will be something like 5 terabytes.

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The age of the 5TB plan is coming!

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(Laughter)

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What an amazing era!

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This is called "big data".

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A tremendous amount of data is emerging.

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Fortunately, computers are evolving
at an incredible speed.

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The number of chips is increasing
with remarkable momentum,

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so processing capability increases, too.

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Here is another lucky thing,

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which is mostly thanks to
the computers and data.

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We can now visualize data
which was previously impossible to see.

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We are running neural networks,
which couldn't be done before,

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and deep learning is up and running.

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So, all kinds of abnormal patterns
which were invisible before,

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hidden in a huge amount of data,

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these patterns are now becoming visibile.

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As a result, we live in a unique time,
close to an industrial revolution.

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The industrial revolution occurred
over the course of a few hundred years.

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Around the turn of the 19th century,

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over 90% of Japanese, Americans
and people in other areas

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were engaged in primary industry.

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96% in the U.S. at that time.

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But now, only a small percentage does.

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In spite of that, our current productivity
is much higher.

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Similarly, we now use most of our time 
for information processing,

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but with the next industrial revolution,
we will be released from that burden.

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I think we live in an extremely important,
and interesting time.

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We need to embrace living in this time.

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It is ridiculously lucky,
and super interesting.

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It's like living in a bonus round.

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(Laughter)

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Yes, it is.

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A professor at Berkeley claims
to have researched human productivity

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for the past 2,000 years, and actually
as far back as a million years.

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I don't know if he is correct,
but according to him,

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from the Roman Empire
to the industrial revolution,

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in those 2,000 years,
human productivity only doubled

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However, during the 150 years after that,

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the productivity skyrocketed
by nearly 100 times.

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But looking carefully,

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we are reaching saturation now,
from a macroeconomic perspective.

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The way things are right now,
we may soon see another big leap.

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Here is a very interesting sign.

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Let's look at market
capitalization rankings.

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Top ranks go to ICT companies

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from the information and communications
technology industry.

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Alibaba and Amazon are above Toyota,
one of the world's top automobile makers.

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As for GDP, measured
through gross value added,

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Japan has had no ICT sector
for the past 20 years,

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and we have had a shrinking economy.

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Actually, the tendency is similar
across the world:

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the ICT sector is the driver for growth.

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The interesting thing is,

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it is not so much the profit,
but the market cap that is really big.

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It seems a sense of "changing the world"
leads to success.

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In other words, this is an astonishing era
in which dreaming creates wealth.

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It is not hard work, but imagination
that generates national wealth.

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Keeping that in mind,
how should we move forward?

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I think the following three things are
very important.

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First, use a massive amount
of big data in various fields.

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Second, process the data
with tremendous power at affordable costs.

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Third, of course we need
world-class scientists and engineers

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to work very hard.

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Here we will need to face an inconvenient
truth that is rarely mentioned in Japan.

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The first data is...

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To tell the truth,

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it's really no competition.

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We aren't even close, in any field,
when it comes to using data.

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Of course there are autonomous cars
and other advanced technologies,

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but in terms of room sharing, car sharing,
and other industries that use data,

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personal information protection laws
make them impossible.

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In Japan, anyways.

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With autonomous cars, for example,
there are other problems.

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There is a high possibility
that Japan could make

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the world's top autonomous car.

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But look at Japanese roads -

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impossible!

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(Laughter)

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It is impossible!

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(Laughter)

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An old lady comes driving the other way

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yelling at you to get out of the way,

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so you have to pull into a driveway,
or back up 10 meters to pass each other.

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Automatic cars can't do that,
they completely stop.

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Some say to solve it with technology.

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Sure, we could make flying cars
or cars with legs.

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But the car would cost 30 million yen,
so it's impossible.

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Even if we try flying drones,
look at this.

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See?

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This is Minato-ku, Tokyo.

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It is a mixture of one-story
and 50-story buildings.

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Most of buildings in Paris are flat,
except for the Eiffel Tower.

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So they can use drone zones
to fly, but we can't.

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As for data processing,

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Basically, the only expense
for data processing should be electricity.

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But we pay a lot.

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Data processing costs are huge
in Japan for some reason.

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And how about data processing solutions?

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These are only a few of the options,
but there is no Japanese presence.

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So, Japan is far behind
on data processing.

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In fact, the situation is terrible.

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One of the core technologies,
deep learning, has a few key centers,

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and experts of ITC industry
gather in these areas,

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they are famous.

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They all live abroad,
mostly in the U.S. and U.K.

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This is the situation.

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You may think
there are engineers in Japan.

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Yes, there are many.

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But only 1/3 as many as the U.S.

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Notice the hidden area in the middle?

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We may think subconsciously
that Japan ranks second, after the U.S.

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That is not true.

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We are losing to China and India.

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This is our reality.

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Even fewer people are using big data,

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so we might actually
rank around 7th or 8th.

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There is a shortage
of people who work with numbers.

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Japan has 100,000 less yearly graduates
in science and technology than Korea,

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which has a population
of only 50 million.

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Korea and Germany consider themselves
to be tech-oriented nations;

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over 60% of their
college students major in science

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but only 20% in Japan.

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People like me who study
to get PhDs are considered strange,

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like some freak of nature.

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So what caused this situation?

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The number of the people
with analytical training is very small,

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1/3 of the number in the U.S.
per 100 people.

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Compared to Poland,
a math-oriented nation,

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we are one digit column lower.

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We lack not only people,
but programs as well.

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The U.S. didn't have any
data science programs either,

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but in just one year
they started over 500.

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In Japan, Shiga University will finally
open a program in spring, 2017.

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We have none at all.

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It is a complete shortage of personnel.

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Not only are people difficult to find,

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they don't have much enterprising spirit.

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We live in an era where anyone
could be the next Edison,

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and yet people lack motivation.

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We don't need otaku, we need people
who want to change the world.

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Of course we need hackers and geeks;

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we don't have enough of them,
and that is why we can't compete globally.

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(Laughter)

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We have had such an era before.

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We have had very difficult times.

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Once again, we have
almost nothing to offer.

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Do we have no hope in Japan?

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Looking back to the Industrial Revolution,

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it actually had three phases.

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New technologies were invented
in the late 1750's,

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and then they were put to practical use.

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Finally they came together even further,

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forming a kind of intricate ecosystem.

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What was Japan doing at that time?

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During Phase 1,
samurai were tying up their hair.

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Over 90% of people worked in rice fields.

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That continued for over 100 years,
so Japan didn't participate in Phase 1.

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Then Japan suddenly adopted new technology

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and made tremendous progress.

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We made bullet trains and super computers,

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and Japan became a high-tech nation.

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Once again,
we have obviously missed Phase 1,

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but let's not worry about that.

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(Laughter)

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We should focus on preparing
for the upcoming Phase 2 and 3.

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This is my proposal.

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(Laughter)

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We still have potential.

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Japan didn't experience
Phase 1 in the past, either.

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So it's not a problem.

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(Laughter)

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The other big waves,
Phase 2 and 3, are coming!

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We should prepare to ride those waves.

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We are full of great concepts in Japan.

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We have Ghost in the Shell, Doraemon...

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there are so many excellent ideas.

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Wouldn't these would be perfect
for Phase 2 and Phase 3?

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(Laughter)

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We have material.

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We have ideas.

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We can win again!

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(Laughter)

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Here is an emotional line
from a recent film.

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"Japan rose up through scrap and build,

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and we will rise again."

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These are lines
from "Godzilla Resurgence."

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We are faced with extreme circumstances,

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and we are almost scrapped.

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But let's try again!

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Let's start fresh,
and enjoy the competition.

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That's all I have to say.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)