NikkeiBP Announces Three Winners of the Second "Japan Innovators Award"

Tokyo -- November 13, 2003 -- Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. has announced the winners of its second Japan Innovators Award. Established in year 2002, the award aims to revitalize the staggering Japanese economy by shedding light on unique and innovative individuals, who have or have the potential to breath new life into the Japanese industry. Nominations were made from diversified fields regardless of specialties or professions. The commendation ceremony will be held on November 28 in Tokyo to award the winners a certificate of commendation and a prize.

The winners are as follows:

Winners for the Grand Prize

- Dr. Ken Sakamura (Professor of the University of Tokyo)

- Dr. Sumio Iijima (Senior Research Fellow at NEC Corp.)

Winner for the Excellence Award

- Mr. Shinjiro Yamada (President and CEO, INCS Inc.)

Apart from receiving nominations from the screening committee chaired by Professor Ikujiro Nonaka (Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University), staff writers of Nikkei BP's vertical publications nominated candidates deemed as industry innovators. Approximately two hundred candidates were selected from the nominees at the initial screening, and were narrowed down to eighteen for the final screening.

The double Grand Prize went to Tokyo University Professor Ken Sakamura and NEC's Senior Research Fellow Sumio Iijima. Dr. Sakamura was awarded the Prize for his invention of an embedded operating system "TRON (The Realtime Operating System Nucleus)," which contributed greatly to the advancement of the networked society. TRON is an open architecture OS, and has become an indispensable infrastructure for electronics and automobile industries. The annual production of TRON microprocessors exceeds five billion, making it obvious that TRON has indeed become a de facto global standard for the software industry. Dr. Iijima was awarded the Prize for his pioneering discovery of the structure of carbon nanotubes, one of the hottest materials now in the field of nanotechnology. Carbon nanotubes is said to be many times stronger than steel and weighs less than half of aluminum. That being the case, the material is full to the brim with expectations for its extensive practical applications.

The Excellence Award went to Mr. Shinjiro Yamada, President & CEO of INCS, Inc. for his achievements in bringing innovation to the manufacturing frontlines. His company automated the tooling production system by capitalizing on IT, whereby drastically reducing the production lead-time. Mr. Yamada is also an active investor engaged in investment activities for revitalizing the Japanese tooling industry.

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