MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS (February 10, 2023) — If Monmouth College students are looking for inspiration in the early days of the spring semester, they would be wise to watch a four-minute video recently released by the Office of the Prime Minister of Japan, which highlights the remarkable career of 1992 graduate Hiroyuki Fujita.
Last fall during Homecoming weekend festivities, Fujita was one of two inductees into his alma mater's Hall of Achievement, the highest honor Monmouth bestows upon its graduates.
An immigrant from Japan, Fujita is the founder and CEO of Quality Electrodynamics, a global developer and magnetic resonance-imaging technology manufacturer. In 2019, QED became a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Canon Inc, with Fujita serving as chief technology officer of the CT-MR Division of Canon Medical Systems Corp, headquartered in Tochigi, Japan.
In the video, Fujita offers several words of advice for his "recipe for success," including the necessity to put dreams and ideas into action using his motto, "One step at a time." Soon, he says, "When you look back, you are going to be amazed by the distance you walked."
A personal highlight, which helped take his already-flourishing career to a new level, was an invitation from President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama to be an honored guest and sit in the First Lady's box at the 2012 State of the Union Address. The invitation came in recognition of Fujita helping to lead a growing high-tech manufacturing company in the United States.
"It was such a life-changing experience to me," he says in the video. "I was under the spotlight of the entire US media for that day. What President Obama did for me expanded my horizons in every possible direction."
Fujita also spoke in the video about the importance of learning from people from other disciplines with different ideas, which can lead to the type of "A-ha moments" that drive innovation forward.
Personal contacts, he said, have been most important to him.
"When I think of what is the most valuable thing for me at this point, it is the people network I have been able to develop over the years," says Fujita, noting the importance of communication and trust.
Among his other nuggets of advice in the video are "Go global" and "As long as you learn something from failure, it's not failure."
Fujita is such a big believer in the latter concept that he adapted it for his autobiography, titled Fail Fast! Creating the Future by Learning Lessons from Our Mistakes.
