Keigo Hatayama
Japan
CAREER Enrolled in April 2011; Completed master’s degree in March 2013
When I was at KMD, I worked with Professor Hiroyuki Kishi as a member of “Creative Industry” project to study local brands and was involved in a joint project in Onagawa, a town in Miyagi. Throughout the project, we continued to ask ourselves what was truly necessary for the local community as we planned events, conducted promotions, and established a community development company. This ultimately led to a successful event in Hibiya Park, Tokyo that drew more than 200,000 visitors. It was a very valuable experience to be involved in a project in which people came from different generations and backgrounds, and were also separated by physical distance.
I now work at an internet company as a planner. While at KMD, I was involved in a project for local brands that tried to answer the question, “What qualities do things that are loved by large numbers of people possess?” My current work may seem a bit removed from regional development, but the research I did and the projects I was involved in at KMD have given me a basis from which to work today as I think about how to develop optimum services that large numbers of customers will use. I look forward to continuing to create products and services that are used and loved by lots of people.
(This article was written in March 2015.)