Many international people I know here say they choose to live in Japan because they love the culture. Of course, I like Japanese culture too, but that's not really the reason why I work for NTT Laboratories. Every country has its own culture, and to me Japan is just another country.

Much more important to me is the fact that NTT allows me to focus so much on conducting such advanced research in an industrial setting. I don't like failing, so even in research, the more someone tells me something is too hard or impossible, the more determined I am to succeed. NTT Basic Research Laboratories where I work have the world's finest research equipment, and I doubt whether any other university or organization in the world is better equipped than we are here. This excellent environment helps to maintain my drive as I have no excuses and the only ingredient required to produce great research results is my own motivation. Just as lasers were studied for many years before optical communications technology blossomed into the highly digitally interconnected society we see today, my research technology may also take another 30 or 40 years to bloom. But I know that at NTT Laboratories, we can make this distant future a reality.