It is a true honor for me to take office as General Managing Director of the Hoso Bunka Foundation. I have been involved with broadcasting for the past thirty-five years at NHK mainly in news reporting and region-based broadcasting service as well. Making the best of my experience, I would like to contribute to the development and improvement of broadcasting culture. As we all know, broadcast media has a tremendous amount of influence in our community, so much so that I feel acutely the significance of my responsibility to support the role that broadcast media plays. I am determined to further improve the quality of HBF’s activities based on its three fundamental pillars: providing grants for research and technological development, giving awards to excellent programs, and training human resources by organizing events such as forums. I will do my utmost to serve you, and look forward to your support and encouragement.