Journey

Mamoru： My colleague Ayumi Kabata inspired me. She used to work for JPO as a secondment. At that time, I was just getting used to my new role in my new department of Canon IP, so I was honestly worried that my work environment once would change again. However, my boss generously encouraged me and supported my challenge.

Daisuke：Ayumi currently works at Canon China. She's always very active at the forefront of her work.

Daisuke：April 2019. Then I returned to Canon in April 2021. So I worked for JPO for two years.

Mamoru：I succeeded Daisuke and also worked for two years.

Daisuke：We've always been close, so I was very happy to hear that Mamoru was going to be my successor.

Mamoru：Do you remember that I called you right after when I knew I was going to succeed you?

Daisuke：Yeah. You asked a lot about my work in JPO. I immediately understood you were excited but worried at the same time about a big difference in work culture between the "private sector" and the "public sector".

Daisuke：These negotiations were really tough. Because they wouldn't bother to change and improve their operation related to their IP system without any merits for their country. So, we need to explain that they would be able to receive benefits from our cooperative activities and support. For that, we need to accurately investigate and deeply understand their situations and thoughts and positively consider what kind of cooperation and support would be attractive for them. For example, assume that they have an issue with delays in the examination process and are required to deal with huge backlogs. If they are trying to increase the number of examiners, JPO might be able to provide them with the practical examination training for new examiners. On the other hand, if employing a high number of new examiners is practically difficult due to their limited resources, JPO might be able to propose a program to utilize search and examination results between the IP offices so as to reduce the burden of examination. At this moment, I fully understand this kind of negotiations, but when I first begun working for JPO, there were so many things that I didn't know and it took me a bit of time to get used to them.

Mamoru：I couldn't agree more. I studied a lot about my counterparts. For example, when I participated in the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) negotiations with the Indian Patent Office (IPO), I learned a lot about India, including not only the IP system, their examination practices and procedures, and India's organization of their government administration, but also the cultural differences between India and Japan, such as ideas towards time, food, religions and so on. While this type of information did not seem directly relevant to the negotiations themselves, it helped to truly understand the IPO counterparts and facilitate negotiations. Because of these experiences, I've come to be very intrigued with India. In fact, I am currently part of a team of experts developing an IP strategy for India in Canon IP.

Mamoru：Yes. While in JPO, I had opportunities to work with a lot of government officials including the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc. and I found that they devote their time and effort passionately to helping Japanese companies expand the business overseas. I was truly inspired by their high performance and dedication. After I returned to Canon, I've become to have a strong motivation to contribute to the growth of the Japanese economy from the position from a perspective of one private company.

Daisuke：It might sound like an exaggeration, but I think the way I look at things has completely changed. In fact, from the first day, I was really shocked and confused since the ways of thinking in Canon didn’t work at JPO. I went through the cultural differences between the public and private sectors and it took me a little while to adapt them. At that time, I truly understood the saying "doubt the obvious." Also, through communication with my counterparts abroad I learned that Japanese ways of thinking don’t always apply in other countries. I became acutely aware that there are many countries around the world, each with a different culture and different ways of thinking.

Mamoru：International cooperation activities, even in the field of IP, are part of diplomatic negotiations between countries and are strongly affected not only by cultural differences but also by geopolitical conditions. This required us to have an outlook on a larger and broader perspective in the context of Japan's international relations with other countries.

Daisuke：That’s right. Through these experiences, I once again realized the importance of “dialogue.” We can’t just expect our counterparts to understand what we are thinking, we need to explain properly and carefully. And we need to throw away our biases and assumptions and listen carefully to what they are saying, with an open mind. I firmly believe it is only through the process of careful dialogue that we can overcome the differences in positions and culture between each party to be on the same page, so that we can think about and develop a constructive solution that is a win-win for both parties.

Mamoru：And this can be applied to anything in our work.

Daisuke：Looking back, I think it was a wonderful two years. I would like to express my gratitude to our company for providing me with the opportunity and to everyone at JPO that I worked with for two years.

Mamoru：I hope to take advantage of the experience gained over the past two years and do work that has a positive impact on the economic growth of Japan and foreign countries from the position as one private company.