Solving Social Issues with Ricoh Technologies

If a company makes clever use of its technological innovation capabilities to propose the supply of new goods and services, it can provide solutions to various issues faced by society, and in turn, people can realize a sense of fulfillment at how their lives have been enriched. This process of building upon the efforts of predecessors is characteristic of human history.

To take movement over long distances as an example, in the Edo Period it would take more than 10 days to walk from Tokyo to Kyoto. Figuring in lodging fees, the trip would cost around four ryo (an old unit of currency), which would be around 400,000 yen by modern standards. Today, we can make the same journey in a little over two hours on a Shinkansen bullet train, and it costs around 13,000 yen for a non-reserved seat. While the time taken has been shortened considerably, it is also a thirtieth of the cost. Each time I ride the bullet train, I realize how good we have things as I reminisce about bygone times.

However, all around us there still remain myriad social issues to be solved. As there are so many things that have reached a dead-end with analog technologies, they await solutions that involve the application of digital technologies. Allow me to offer several examples.

While the long-distance transportation has evolved in terms of speed, the constant accidents caused by means of transportation, cars in particular, are a major problem. No matter how quickly you wish to arrive at your destination, with the relatively frequent occurrence of fatal accidents, your level of satisfaction is seriously diminished. As such, we can hardly wait for the full-scale commercialization of self-driving cars that combine optical technologies focused on stereo cameras with artificial intelligence (AI).

In terms of health, as medical services become more sophisticated the costs of treatment have risen year after year and are now the main culprit behind growing budget deficits. While fiscal reconstruction requires ongoing tax hikes, it can't go on forever. That is why we must contribute to achieving a balance between increasingly advanced medical services and cost reduction, for instance by developing advanced diagnostic imaging technologies and 3D printers for the creating artificial organs and cell sheets.

On the environmental front, water pollution due to dye businesses is an issue in regions with few water resources. The use of printers that can print directly onto fabrics are one means of solving this. It is also imperative that we develop "a printer to allow printing on any materials" that support a wide range of applications.

In terms of production activities, the need for more integrated and sophisticated processing is becoming increasingly urgent. There are clear limitations to production systems focused on the use of molds and dies, and the introduction of new systems centered around 3D printers is a vital global need.

As I have shown, if our organization manages to bring greater sophistication to our printers and optical technologies with the use of digital technologies, it will translate into solutions to social issues. We are expected by society to take a few steps forward, and we must respond to that call.