mr. okawa
About Mr. Okawa
Mr. Isao Okawa, PH.D.

The Okawa Center for Future Children is made possible through a generous donation by Mr. Isao Okawa, and is representative of his commitment to help current and future children around the world.

Mr. Okawa was a business visionary who was passionate about furthering the information society, and was influential in advancements in technology, education, and entertainment.

In 1968 Mr. Okawa founded CSK, a business software and service company. He expanded the corporation, anticipating the growth of the global information society, and in 1982 CSK became the first software company in Japan to be listed on the stock exchange. In 1984, Mr. Okawa acquired Sega Enterprises and fostered its development as a home software entertainment company. He oversaw a total of 90 companies, with total annual turnovers of approximately $7.5 billion.

Mr. Okawa viewed children as the leaders of the information age, and he initiated the Junior Summit to bring together children from around the world to exchange ideas and collaborate on projects involving information technology. The first Junior Summit, held in Tokyo in 1995, brought together 41 children from 20 countries. The second Junior Summit, held at MIT in 1998, brought together 94 children from 54 countries.

In March 2001, Mr. Okawa passed away, but the spirit of his ideals, goals, and enthusiasm lives on today through the Okawa Foundation, which he established in 1986. The Okawa Foundation currently supports more than 950 global initiatives that promote research, development, and education in the information and telecommunication fields.

 

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