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WHY JAPAN

Why was Japan chosen as its location?

Uematsu:  The Japanese RFID market has such huge potential, and on top of that, there are many local Japanese vendors of readers and tags.  Because there are so many local device manufacturers, we can use such local devices.  But we see the bigger opportunity here in the Japanese market, and there is such a need and demand for such a Design Center.

FUTURE PROSPECTS

What do you see for the future of the Design Center?

Uematsu:  Toward the second half of this year, we’d like to create an RFID Solutions Center together with partner companies to provide a total RFID solution.

The Solutions Center will provide software solutions with more focus on the application layers.  On the other hand, the focus of the Design Center will be more on the IT infrastructure, which includes device control and device management.  So when you think of a vertical stack, the Solutions Center will focus on the upper layers while the Design Center will deal with the lower layers.

We’d like to make good use of both the RFID Design Center as well as Solutions Center so these two centers can work hand in hand.

What role do you think Japan will play in the future of the industry?

Uematsu:  Japanese companies have leading technology in the areas of devices such as readers and tags, so we certainly expect that these Japanese vendors will take a lead in the future of RFID technology.

At the same time, RFID technology is such a borderless, global technology that I believe you will find opportunities anywhere, not ending with U.S. or Japanese companies.