In January, the MVP blog is looking ahead at what’s to come across the tech world in 2022.
The 2021 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were held this past summer, which meant the return of some sense of normalcy and feelings of optimism in Japan.
With that in mind, we decided to take a look at some of the great work some of our MVPs in Japan have been getting up to over the past year. Let’s dive in!
As we now enter our second year of the ‘online-first’ world, Office Apps & Services MVP Masayuki Mokudai has begun sharing live streams and updates of Microsoft 365 every week, which you can access here.
Additionally, Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP Masaya Sawada, who has been focusing on Windows Server for years, expanded his expertise into cybersecurity in order to facilitate the secure use of cloud required for remote work.
By embracing the new benefits from remote working, and ensuring the safety of those working from home, Masaya and Masayuki are helping build a new society that allows workers in Japan deeper global and local connections.
Even though the shift to remote work has provided a resource to people seeking valuable information via the live-streaming experience, matching the in-person experience of a conference or seminar still has its technical challenges.
Not only do organizers and speakers have to work to create hybridized versions of their presentations that mesh with the digital infrastructure, but they must keep in mind the feeling of online fatigue viewers at-home experience when sitting in front of the computer for too long.
Ensuring good technical solutions exist may now allow everyone to have the same positive attitude, but the kind of work that Masaya and Masayuki are doing has provided ways that users can stay current with the latest Microsoft 365 tips, tricks, and updates.
In the past year, some Japanese community leaders in tech made great efforts to help their friends.
Last year, 14 new community leaders received Microsoft MVP Award in Japan, including Tetsuya Kawahara, a new Office Development MVP, who had this to say: “2021 brought many surprises to me. I have never thought I would be a new Microsoft MVP. I have never imagined that I would have an opportunity to talk to Senior Product Manager, Mark Kashman. And I’m happy that I became a member of the PnP community.”
Even though it’s not easy to keep a positive mindset and work for community members under the difficult situation the pandemic has wrought, Japanese business leaders made it happen by sharing a passion for their community.
Last January, Data Platform MVP, Yoichi Ishikawa, began hosting regular community events as well as giving presentations and blogging.
In November, Windows Development MVP, Kenta Iwasaki, said it was his mission to promote the “Social Implementation of Mixed Reality” by devoting himself to various community activities, such as leading the student community to enhance their love for tech.
In August 2021, Jingun Jung, a Korean immigrant who moved to Japan in 2007 and co-founded his company MotoJin.com in 2015, said, “My 2021 was full of challenges and results.”
All the MVPs in Japan’s Microsoft family agree that the best word to describe 2021 would be “change.”
No matter what their field of particular expertise, every Microsoft MVP this past year felt different changes in terms of community activity, the new hybrid event format, and new forms of relevant information and tips shared by communities adapting to these changes.
But the future is bright and Microsoft MVPs in Japan are optimistic about the future. Windows Development MVP and co-founder of the Tokyo Motion Control Network, Satoshi Maemoto, sums things up perfectly in closing this blog on an optimistic note: “I really hope we can see each other in person in 2022!”
By Nick Kipley