Tachikawa Keiji

Tachikawa Keiji, (born May 27, 1939, Ogaki, Japan), Japanese business executive who was a leader in Japan’s telecommunications industry through his decades-long association with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT).

After graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in technology, Tachikawa joined NTT, Japan’s main telecommunications carrier. He later earned a master’s degree in business administration (1978) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate in engineering (1982) from the University of Tokyo. Tachikawa helped found telecommunications subsidiary NTT America, Inc., in 1987 and served as its first chief executive officer.

From 1992 to 1995 Tachikawa was a senior vice president and general manager of one of NTT’s regional communications sectors. He then served as executive vice president in charge of service engineering (1995–96) and as senior executive vice president in charge of business communications (1996–97) before being tapped to run NTT DoCoMo (short for “Do Communication Over the Mobile Network”). Until Tachikawa took the helm, NTT DoCoMo had been a relatively obscure corporate division. Realizing that the wireless industry held tremendous potential, Tachikawa oversaw the introduction in 1999 of i-mode, a wireless Internet service that soon had millions of subscribers. By the end of 2000, NTT DoCoMo had emerged as one of Japan’s most lucrative businesses. In 2001 Tachikawa was named by Fortune magazine as the Asian Businessman of the Year.

Over the next few years, however, the company saw sales of its wireless phones plummet as the mobile phone market became saturated. Tachikawa reversed the trend in part by introducing an array of innovative new products. These included the Dick Tracy-inspired Wristomo, a wildly popular wristwatch that unfolded into a World Wide Web-capable cell phone, and FOMA (Freedom Of Mobile Multimedia Access), a cutting-edge mobile phone network. FOMA was the first network to feature high-speed “third-generation” technology capable of giving cell phones many of the same functions as personal computers. In 2004 Tachikawa left NTT to assume the presidency of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, where he remained for nearly a decade.