The ZEN University Content Industry History Archive Research Center (HARC) will be presenting commentary programs featuring interviewers specializing in each field to interpret the "Oral History Collection," which features video and transcripts of testimonies from leading figures in various fields related to Japan's content industry.

At HARC, in order to feature more specialists in each specialized category (IT, games, manga, animation, and internet culture), the interviews are conducted by researchers specializing in each field.

In preparation for future academic use, the program will feature each interviewer sharing key points they would like viewers to see in the videos, as well as actual recordings, while showcasing the actual oral histories. The program will also explain how and why the collection can be used.

For the first installment, we will feature researcher Satoshi Endo, a faculty member in the IT department at our university and former editor-in-chief of Monthly ASCII, who will delve into his interviews with historical witnesses, including "Norio Murakami on i-mode from Google's perspective" and "Masao Suga on the secret story behind the birth of Dynabook."

Niconico Live Broadcast: Friday, September 19, 2025, 7:00 PM
[IT History Edition] HARC Interviewer (Satoshi Endo) Digs Deep into Oral History
https://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv348713481?ref=sharetw_large

Preserving valuable testimonials about the development of Japan's content industry as a historical asset for future generations

We plan to broadcast each genre on Fridays at 7 PM over the next five weeks.
Upcoming episodes: September 26th (Friday) Internet Culture, October 3rd (Friday) Animation
October 10th (Friday) Manga, October 17th (Friday) Games
The next oral history update is scheduled for September 24th (Wednesday).

The ZEN University Content Industry History Archive Research Center (HARC) released the first installment of its "Oral History Collection" on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, which contains video and transcripts of testimonies from industry leaders who have been active in various fields related to the Japanese content industry.

The collection preserves valuable testimonies from the development of Japan's content industry as academic digital data, including those from Shirogumi Co., Ltd. founder Tatsuo Shimamura, who worked on the VFX for the film "Godzilla-1.0," which won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards, Enix Co., Ltd. founder Yasuhiro Fukushima, who brought the Dragon Quest game series to the world, and Machiko Satonaka, known for her manga works including "Aries no Otome-tachi." These collections are posted on the HARC website and in the database of the International Joint Research Center for Japanese Cultural Resources, an international joint use and research center certified by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and are available for anyone to freely view as research materials.

Passing on valuable testimonies on the development of Japan's content industry to the next generation as a historical asset

HARC's oral history collection is an effort to leave behind for the next generation the testimonies of people who have been active in the content industry, such as games, animation, and manga, and in the fields of IT and internet culture that have created them, in the form of video and transcript materials.

While Japan's content industry has contributed to improving its international cultural influence and revitalizing the economy, not only are many of the testimonies of those who have supported it behind the scenes already being lost, but there are not many objective critiques or research results based on historical facts. By making oral history available as a historical asset for social use such as research, education, and business creation, HARC hopes to pass on knowledge to the next generation of the content industry. We have already conducted interviews with over 60 people, and plan to continue to release them as part of our oral history collection.

[Oral History Collection 1st Release List] *Titles omitted

<IT>

Tomio Goto (Former Director of NEC Corporation / Japan Personal Computer Museum, Developer of the "TK-80" Microcomputer Kit)

Masao Suga (Former Toshiba Corporation / Developer of the "Dynabook" and inventor of the "SD card")

Norio Murakami (Former CEO of Google Japan)

Keiji Takao (Former J-Phone / Inventor of "Shamail")

Masaaki Hagino (Voyager / Digital Publishing Business)

<Game>

Keiko Erikawa (Honorary Chairman, Director, Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd.)

Yoichi Erikawa (Representative Director, Chairman and Founder, Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd.)

Yasuhiro Fukushima (Founder, former Enix Co., Ltd.)

Shigeru Yamashita (CEO, SEGA FAB Co., Ltd.) Advisor / Former Chairman of the Japan Amusement Industry Association)

<Manga>

Machiko Satonaka (Manga Artist / "The Maidens of Aries," "Rainbow in the Sky," etc.)

Mitsuru Sugaya (Manga Artist / "Game Center Arashi," etc.)

<Animation>

Yoichi Ogawa (President and CEO, Shirogumi Co., Ltd.)

Sunao Katabuchi (Animation Film Director / "In This Corner of the World," etc.)

Tatsuo Shimamura (Founder, Shirogumi Co., Ltd.)

Keiichi Hara (Animation Director / "Crayon Shin-chan," etc.)

<Internet Culture>

Jun Murai (Computer Scientist / "Father of the Internet in Japan")

Takashi Yamakawa (Former Director, Nissho Iwai Corporation / Contributor to the creation of "NiftyServe")

and others

◆Public Pages

・ZEN University HARC Oral History Collection:

https://zen.ac.jp/harc/archives/modern_history/oral_history/

・Ritsumeikan University ARC Database (ZEN University HARC Oral History Collection): https://www.dh-jac.net/db2/video/search_2024d40.php