Expanding my own value and potential, to contribute from the research side.
Science Research
Wataru Shimizu
Leaf tobacco component analysis and new analysis technology development
Developing new analysis technology implemented even in overseas plants, to further strengthen quality assurance.
I entered this company in 2014, and was responsible for work to analyze the components contained in tobacco leaf and to develop analysis methods. My work involved the creation of methods which would allow analysis to be performed easily at the sites of manufacturing plants and raw material plants, in order to strengthen quality assurance in the JT Group's value chain. I was transferred in 2018 to the JT International Quality Assurance Division. With Germany as a base, I was involved in the development and execution of quality assurance schemes for global manufacturing processes and raw material purchasing processes, as well as their standardization and normalization. In this work, I acquired international patents for newly-developed analysis technology, and also produced output that was presented at international academic conferences.
Even after returning to Japan, I have been mainly responsible for coordination with related domestic and overseas departments. I also formulate strategies for my affiliated team and incorporate them into specific tactics, while continuing my analysis of leaf tobacco to ensure the quality and reliability of final tobacco products.
Taking a central acting role even up to the resolution of issues - that is the appeal of research at a manufacturing company.
Through my work to implement effective quality assurance schemes while comparing and adjusting the demands of work sites and the seeds of research, I have acquired many experiences that gave me a strong awareness of contributing to business from the research side. If funds, time, and manpower were all infinite, it might be possible to easily solve even the most difficult of problems, but in reality all of these have limits. What kinds of special steps are needed to maximize the work that can be done even within those limits? I have come to realize that this challenge can be approached even from the research side. In order to realistically solve any issues that are being faced, their complex situations must be understood and solutions must be executed from various perspectives. I believe that the true appeal of research at a manufacturing company is becoming a part of the central roles within the flow of business, and taking action until issues are solved.
I want to expand my own value and potential without being limited only to the things I have learned and experienced.
I do not believe that opinions such as “I want to do work that applies the things I learned as a student and the fields I am strong in,” “I want to make use of my experience with overseas assignments and mainly work on overseas projects,” and “I want to be responsible for work in a specific field where I can directly utilize my past work experience” are necessarily wrong. However, in my view I want to engage in all types of work with a positive attitude so that I can expand my own value and potential, without being limited in a narrow sense just to the things I have learned and experienced in the past.
Although in my days as a student I performed botanical and epidemiological research on viruses, the work I became responsible for after entering this company was in the field of analytical chemistry, an area outside of my specialty. However, as I studied this subject desperately while working on the duties I was responsible for, I came to understand that a mathematical approach, which was necessary for me to explain the spread of viral infections during my previous research, could be applied to the analysis of multivariate data in analytical chemistry. Even if in an indirect way, the things that we have learned in the past can definitely be applied somewhere, so I want to continue taking on challenges without constraining my own value and potential from the very beginning. I hope that students who are interested in the JT Group will also expand their own value and potential without limiting themselves only to the things that they have learned in the past.