“My true intention was to make engineers be able to speak (in business negotiations and so on). However, as it was a little bit difficult, I decided to keep on speaking by myself.”

Originally, Ms. Kojima had been engaged in work related to events such as a master of ceremonies and narrator. In founding ESPECIALLY, she assumed that many of the people in the system development industry were quiet (in other words, not good at business talks) from her past experiences. With herself entering this business, she not only tried to strengthen communication skills of the engineers with high technical skills, but also utilized her personal contacts ranging over plenty of types of business she had built up at her previous job. She remembers that these circumstances made her come up with an idea of creating added value to the concerned industry.

Having started its activity as a system development company as mentioned before, the head office of ESPECIALLY is presently situated in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. Wide-ranging fields of business are operated with 4 main divisions including Systems Division, Public Relations Department, Contents Division, and New Business Division.

Among them, the main activity in Systems Division is System Engineering Service (SES) development. The Company’s engineers are permanently stationed at their clients including major companies for finance, communications, and housing, and public agencies to take care of system developments. For entrusted development, presently, the development team is in operation in Thailand. In response to their clients’ requests, the team develops applications for PC and smartphones. The team also led its development of package software products and released them, such as “Integrated system for reform improvement”, “Security check for 5 minutes a month”, “Hikkoshikun (Moving house)”, and “Member management”. The bridge SE (system engineer) is also stationed in this team so that it can also support offshore development according to needs.

Public Relations Department is committed to services of preparing press release that leads to reporting by mass media, as public relations to support inviting mass media. The Department also supports human resources development for regenerating stores as well as marketing planning by the members with experience of store regeneration.
Contents Division covers design of Websites, posters, characters, logo as well as writing and SNS operating services.

New Business Division seeks for the following business as ESPECIALLY’s original projects: 1) “Bucho Haken (dispatching managers) Service” to dispatch staff who has experienced working as the manager in medium and small enterprises once a week or a month to micro enterprises, 2) “Writing staff” to perform SNS operation or writing work for public relations magazines of corporations instead of the inhouse staff, 3) manufacturing and marketing of cosmetic products in the brand of “KALE“, 4) salon management utilizing the cosmetic products mentioned above and so on, and 5) marketing support for the products of SAJ member corporations including FORUM8.

In addition, as ESPECIALLY’s associated corporations, it got three companies started including 1) Orange Rescue LLC for planning and producing radio programs such as “Tokyo Radio News” mentioned at the opening, 2) PetnoKimochi Co., Ltd. for operating Website to aim at contributing to prevention of destroying animals, and 3) General Incorporated Association Tap for encouraging support for women’s independence through learning, and carries out activities in cooperation with them properly.

“Tokyo Radio News” (Rainbow Town FM88.5MHz) in which President Kojima is appearing as a regular

The connection between ESPECIALLY and FORUM8 dates back to 10 years ago or so, when ESPECIALLY joined the current Software Association of Japan (SAJ) that FORUM8 had also been joining from before, which was renamed from “Computer Software Association of Japan (CSAJ)” in July 2021. Mentioning part of the reason why ESPECIALLY joined the Association, President Kojima says that at that time, they not only already had package software developed in-house, but also were very much interested in what kind of software products the member companies were dealing with, and in what way they were providing those products.

Moreover, President Kojima was originally interested in such keywords as VR and AI (artificial intelligence) and gradually recognized, “the best company for VR is FORUM8.” About 3 years ago, President Kojima visited the Tokyo head office showroom of FORUM8 for the first time. There she experienced a variety of lineups featuring the best of state-of-the-art technologies of VR and simulation. While enjoying them in person, she realized the deep potential of VR. Later, as she visited “FORUM8 Design Festival” (held in November every year), she saw advanced and diverse solutions of FORUM8 products in a wide range of areas, and came to get interested in FORUM8 itself again along with its projects.

“We would like to introduce FORUM8 products to as many people as possible. And we think that they are really good products for being used when proceeding restructure of infrastructure in Japan from now on.”

In general, many people tend to think of the world of games when speaking of VR (virtual reality). Actually, however, games are only one part of the area that use VR. For example, in infrastructure improvement, urban redevelopment, and building architecture and so on, UC-win/Road can be used to represent the shape of completion swiftly and realistically with VR beforehand. What’s more, it is possible to reflect the actual situation of Japan such as terrain, urban environment, or traffic networks to make diverse and advanced simulation by adding different conditions. President Kojima says that she was convinced that it was the very tool to realize such functions that are required in the age of reconstructing infrastructure. Then, ESPECIALLY made a proposal of supporting sales of simulation technology based on this UC-win/Road to FORUM8. Partly because the sales staff members of ESPECIALLY were well acquainted with the industry that potentially needed utilization of VR technology, when they made proposal to major system integration (SI) corporations, it fitted to the needs for urban redevelopment and schools etc. It was adopted by plural projects including ongoing cases. In such cases, for example, a major SI company examines its solution to a customer’s problem. The company is considering how to show the effects from the designed system and its practicability. In addition, it is expected that business that requires explanation easier to understand about the results after the completion of a similar system and that the business division itself will be more active. In response to such intention, ESPECIALLY staff advised introduction of presentation using UC-win/Road. Throughout the whole process from visit to FORUM8 showroom to the seminar for how to use UC-win/Road, ESPECIALLY follows the company and helps it to realize adoption of UC-win/Road. President Kojima also mentions the topics of “Metaverse” and “Digital Twins” that are attracting attention recently. She pays attention to the fact that FORUM8 assumed the world that shares the same concept with them and have been accumulating knowhow over 20 years till now. She thinks that such efforts of FORUM8 give it strength to generate highly completed simulation technology.

Now experiencing the VR system in the showroom!

“I think that the feature of made-in-Japan software products capable of supporting foreign people including those in developing countries is going to be the central part of economic activities of Japan.”

President Kojima says that through SAJ, ESPECIALLY exchanges information with different local governments and students every year. Accumulation of such activities has been contributing to raising ICT in Japan, and she is willing to play a part in this continuously.

As ESPECIALLY puts effort into employing young generation, it aims at human resources development for them to acquire total ability, reflecting the characteristics of the Company to cover a wide range of business fields. Along with following the needs of the new age, she describes the Company’s direction saying, “we want to help disseminating splendid Japanese software not only to the domestic market but also to the world as much as possible.”

Based on this point of view, she also mentions an approach to spreading utilization of VR. She says, “Broaden your horizons and imagine it would be interesting if you use this for some work other than the task you are now working at, or if you develop it in such a way.” Using UC-win/Road actually after this should make it possible to broaden the range of utilizing VR technology, according to her.

“We would like to continue drawing a picture of made-in-Japan technologies including VR to evolve with FORUM8.”