All Nippon Information industry Association Federation (ANIA), which has its secretariat within the KCG Group, including Kyoto Computer Gakuin and The Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics, and is chaired by Wataru Hasegawa, KCG Group President & Chair of the board, held its 43rd ANIA Kyoto Congress on November 17, 2022, at Hotel Granvia Kyoto in Kyoto City.A large number of members and related persons gathered from all over Japan to study and interact with each other, and to pledge that the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) industry will contribute to Japan's economic development while disseminating information from Kyoto to the world and into the future.The conference was cancelled the year before last due to the novel coronavirus infection, and last year, the lectures were held online. This year, the conference was held in a face-to-face format for the first time in three years, with sufficient infection control measures taken.Kyoto Information service industry Association (President: Wataru Hasegawa), served as host.
At the beginning of the meeting, Chairman Hasegawa stated, "I am convinced that the active use of ICT will surely lead to solutions to various problems in the current severe social and economic climate.ANIA and the Itrenmei(Information Technology Federation of Japan : approximately 5,000 member companies with 4 million employees) are committed to cooperate as much as possible toward the realization of a digital society through active exchange of information and opinions among our members," he said in his opening remarks.Guests of honor included Mr. Keiji Ohnishi, Director, Information Technology Innovation Division, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; Mr. Kohei Yoshida, Chief Counselor, Digital Agency; Mr. Katsuhiko Shirai, Chairman, Japan Massive Open Online Courses Promotion Council (Former president, Waseda University); Mr. Daisaku Kadokawa, Mayor of Kyoto City (Mr. Norikazu Okada, Deputy Mayor of Kyoto City); and Mr. Seiichi Nishimoto, Chairman, Advanced Science, Technology & Manegement Research Institute of Kyoto, who offered congratulatory remarks.There were also awards for ANIA's outstanding officials.
After this, Mr. Youichiro Miyake, General Manager of AI Department, Square Enix Corporation, gave a keynote speech titled "Game AI and Smart City = Metaverse".He introduced the state-of-the-art IT situation and the attendees listened to him attentively.Students of Kyoto Computer Gakuin Digital Game & Amusement also participated.Then, Ms. Karen Makishima, former Minister of Digital and a member of the House of Representatives, gave a special video lecture titled "Japan's Digital Policy: A Review of My 10 Months as Minister of Digital," in which she stated emphatically that she would continue to promote digitalization to make people's lives more convenient and to keep the digital environment fun and fair.A reception was held afterwards, and Mr. Michihiko Minoh, Director of the Information Integration Division, RIKEN, and President of The Consortium for Information Society in Kyoto, gave a congratulatory speech at the beginning of the reception.Participants enjoyed a friendly atmosphere of fellowship.