Service

• Bridging the Digital Divide with Solution BIRD⇒ [BIRD].
  For underserved areas to provide affordable, reliable internet,  remote education, healthcare, business, and disaster prevention
• Supporting Standardization at ITU and IE
  Lets turn your excellent technologies into global standards
• Help Organizational Growth and Capacity Building
  Facilitating continuous improvement in organizational practice
  across public and private sectors, non-profits, and social initiatives.

Bridging the Digital Divide

Why is Global Plan Inc. working on Bridging the Digital Divide?

In October 2024, the Nobel Prize in Physics and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry were awarded to AI-related research and applications, and the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Japan’s nuclear abolition movement, highlighting the remarkable progress of the AI ​​revolution and the risk of nuclear war.

As digitalization accelerates, particularly through AI, societies without Internet access—currently encompassing one-third of the world’s population—face the grave risk of being decisively left behind. The unconnected world will suffer an irreversible gap in economic development, cultural exchange, human rights, education, and healthcare. This divide may expose the entire globe to heightened threats, including pandemics, refugee crises, terrorism, and even the specter of nuclear conflict, jeopardizing the very sustainability of our planet.

How should humanity confront this critical challenge, and what unique power and responsibility do the Japanese people hold in addressing it?

Specifically addressing this pressing challenge, Dr. Okamura shares his engineering insights, proposed solutions, and personal actions to close this gap in his recently published book set.

Turn Technologies into ITU and IEC Standards

GP Inc.’s services are available not only to Japan, but also to private companies and organizations, public sector and government agencies in Asia Pacific, Africa and the Americas. Towards the development and agreement of international standards of superior technology, GP Inc. is ready to support the agreements at ITU and IEC, especially in the field of ICT, by preparing documents, participating in actual meetings, coordinating discussions and providing advice for future standardization.

GP Inc. also covers information infrastructure, environment, safety and market development in developing countries.

Enhance Human Capacity and Service Productivity

GP Inc.’s Initiatives

GP Inc. is based on the “Deming Philosophy” and works primarily in the service industry, focusing on cooperation, respect for people, and holistic approach to increase the organization’s overall labor productivity through small teams of 4-5 people, while at the same time improving the capabilities of its human resources.

Background and History

It is not known in Japan that the “Deming 4-Day Seminar” was held across the US from 1986 to 1993 and was the driving force behind the “miracle of labor productivity” under the Clinton administration from 1993 to 2001.

The seminar was triggered by a paper by Professor Yoshida Kosaku of California State University titled “The Source of Japan’s Productivity: Competition and Cooperation”*. Dr. Deming praised the paper, saying that it would “change America,” and launched the seminar, hiring Professor Yoshida as his assistant.

Professor Yoshida conveyed the essence of Japanese management to Dr. Deming, and the two of them completed the “Deming Philosophy.”

*Yoshida Kosaku, “The Sources of Japanese Productivity: Competition and Cooperation,” St. John’s University, Business Review, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 18-20, Winter 1985.

Professor Yoshida returned to Japan in 1997 and disseminated the Deming philosophy through the Toyota Executive TQM Course and the NEC Quality Management Seminar, among others. He also developed the Creative Dynamic Group Method (CDGM) for bottom-up improvement of non-manufacturing sites, and began to put it into practice in companies and organizations.

Mr. Okamura became Professor Yoshida’s assistant for six years, working for companies such as NTT Comware and NTT Data, conducting CDGM seminars for a total of 2,000 people, and also giving seminars and lectures at NTT Comware Tokai, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Teikyo University Hospital, more than 20 universities, and the international organization APT.

Activities

Western Nepal Himalayas Cable Laying

A 10km BIRD optical fiber cable was laid, in a DIY manner by villagers using bare hands) in the unexplored jungle at an altitude of 1,300m in Dull Municipality in the Himalayan mountains of western Nepal, connecting schools, hospitals, etc. to the Internet.

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Presiding over Session 222 of the World Summit on Information Society (WSI S2022).

 In order to provide broadband Internet to sparsely populated areas at a reasonable cost, experts in low-earth orbit satellites, fixed wireless, and optical fibe (okamura) were invited.

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Laying cables to Everest Base Camp

a total of 42km of BIRD cable was airlifted in 34 cable drums to designated locations along the trekking route up to Mt. Everest Base Camp(5300m).

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Feasibility test Efficient broadband network deployment in Kenya

FY 2020, 2022: Study on efficient broadband network deployment in Africa

FY2024, Feasibility test Efficient broadband network deployment in Kenya

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World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), 2022

Project Bird selected as one of the champion projects in the infrastructure category at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), 2022

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South Sudan

National Communication Authority(NCA), with Mr. Adok(left)D.G., and Mr. Simba(right), and Mr. Simba CEO of East African Communications Organization(EACO). 　

→See Mr. Adok; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmwFKMUA7W0

→See Dr. Simba https://eaco.int/pages/exsec

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News

Company

Representative profile

Haruo Okamura

Professional experiences

• NTT Network Innovation Labs at NTT R&D  
• NEC  
• Corning Inc.

Professional experiences as a researcher and advisor 

• National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
  —Research Advisor
• Waseda University, Faculty of Science and Engineering
  —Visiting Professor
• National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
  —External Evaluation Committee Member
• Global Plan Inc.
  —President and CEO

Professional experience at international organizations

• Senior Advisor, Corning Inc, USA, 2003-present
• ITU-T SG15 Optical Amplifiers, Rapporteur
• IEC TC86 Optical Amplifiers, Convenor
• Vice-chair, ITU-T SG15, 2001-2004
• Vice-chair, ITU-T TSAG, 2005-2012
• Chair, IECSC86C (Optical Fiber Systems and Active Devices), 2016-present
  (Optical Fiber Systems, Optical Fiber Sensors, Optical Amplifiers, and Optical Active Components)
• Editor-in-chief; ITU-T Recommendations L.1700(2016), L.110(2017), L.163(2018)
  (ITU-T’s unprecedented standards for expressly bridging the urban-rural digital divide)

Educational background

• BS, MS, Ph.D. (1993, Tokyo Inst. of Technol.) 
• EMBA (2003) 

Awards

IEC 1906 Award (2004)

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications（MIC)　2014
Information and Communications Technology Award, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)　2021

Reiwa 3 Industrial Standardization Business Award, awarded by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry to Mr. Haruo Okamura, President and CEO of Global Plan Co., Ltd.

Book

Company Profile

Corporate Identity

Based on respect for human beings, cooperation, and holistic optimization, we will globally contribute to preventing social loss and inequality.　

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