Taichi Kimura

Sysmex Corporation

Q1．What do you do?

 I am involved in the development of blood test reagents at a laboratory equipment manufacturer. For example, in a medical checkup, it may be difficult to imagine what is going on during the process, but our products are used by laboratory technicians in the intervening period. Although the products do not come into direct contact with the patient's eyes, they are involved in the prevention of disease, detection, and urgent decision making as their role is one of high contribution and high responsibility. I think that university students have a strong image of science-related work as research and making new discoveries. Development is what you have to do after that, up until the point where you can deliver the product to the market. I tried to explain it, but it would be an incredibly long story, so I will spare you the details. Some of keywords that I personally consider important to help us in the search are : customer orientation, safety and durability, supply responsibility, cost, design information, and legal issues (especially the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law).

Q2．What have you applied to your current work from what you learned at Nagai Lab, and how has it been utilized.

 It's hard to answer exactly with words. That is because the more specific it is, the less useful it is. I have a feeling that there are not even 10% of people who say, "I did A in university, and I'm doing A at work." However, the process of "what I thought about and how I acted before I could do A" is useful not only for A but also for everything else (even if you end up not being able to do A!). You may think "What‘s the point of doing this? but please remember that it will definitely help you in some way.

Q3．Message to juniors

 It is often said that "students have time but no money, and working people have the opposite", but I realized after becoming a working person that this is not true at all because time and money are interchangeable. In fact, I think the biggest gap between students and working people is "choice and options". The university environment in particular is full of choices. You can talk to the world's top researchers, experiment all night long with research funds, and devote yourself to part-time jobs and club activities, or you can just waste your time, which is another option given only to students. Of course, there are many things that are out of your control due to the weakness of your options, but I hope that you will take full advantage of them. When I count up the options available to working people, I feel dizzy, but if you take options x choices = freedom, the sum total is not decreasing. There are certain things that you want to do now, and things that you can only do now, so please spend the precious time doing your best on your way.