Motivated by exploration and connection: a career in security R&D and encouraging next-generation talent

My dream of becoming a researcher was sparked by an acquaintance, who is a prominent physics researcher. Every time I heard about his latest overseas research, his ability to grasp the essence of complex subjects like particle physics resonated deeply with me, making me think, "How cool is that!" This ignited my aspiration to become a researcher. Influenced by this, I joined the physics research club in high school and engaged in research. The process of formulating my own questions, developing hypotheses and verifying them through experiments was incredibly fascinating, and I became engrossed in exploration.

In addition, due to my parents' work, I had many opportunities to participate in IT-related events and symposiums, which naturally drew my interest towards the field of security. While majoring in physics at university, I also participated in IT-related activities, such as SecHack365, a long-term hackathon designed to cultivate young security innovators, who can tackle security challenges with innovative ideas. This gave me the opportunity to consider the introduction of security education in elementary and junior high schools. Through these experiences, my desire for connecting with people steadily grew, giving me a strong sense of the social significance and technical appeal of the security field. These experiences ultimately motivated me to narrow my job search exclusively to the security sector.

Among the diverse projects I've worked on since joining Fujitsu, the Secret Leakage Detection Technology project left a particularly strong impression. This involved developing technology that automatically determines whether a document contains confidential information, based on internal information management regulations. I was responsible for the prototype development and accuracy improvement. I struggled with analyzing the causes of result variability and false positives, particularly during the accuracy improvement phase—for instance, when machines judged almost identical content as different, or missed content that should have been detected. It was a continuous process of trial and error. To address these issues, I designed a new evaluation metric with unique weighting to ensure correct detection. As a result, this contributed to reducing the risk of information leakage due to unauthorized secondary use.

Presenting these results at SCIS2025, one of Japan's largest security symposiums, was a valuable experience that made me appreciate my role as a corporate researcher that could deliver real value to society. While preparing the presentation, I wrestled with structuring the story, visualizing the materials and optimizing the delivery. But it was after receiving external evaluations and comments that I made a significant shift from just concentrating on creating technology in R&D to a deeper understanding of the significance of delivering that technology. Through this project, becoming aware of not just the technology itself, but also the power of communication and the connection with society, marked an important turning point for me.

Titles, numerical values, and proper nouns in this document are those reported when this interview was made.