It started when meeting with Mr. Amiri.- PREX Island
Lecturers / Specialists Working style
Visit to a company: What can we do in Rwanda?
At Tumba College of Technology. One hour and a half by car from Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
Lightning countermeasures of OTOWA ELECTRIC CO., LTD. in Rwanda began here.
It started when meeting with Mr. Amiri.
I am Inoue and in charge of business in Africa in OTOWA ELECTRIC CO., LTD
Having had Amiri, an intern in 2015 in our company, triggered this medium and small-sized enterprise in Amagasaki to consider working for lightning countermeasures for a country in East Africa, Rwanda.
Amiri is an IT engineer from Rwanda.
He studied at ABE Initiative for half a year and learned basic knowledge of electricity and lightning countermeasure technology in our company.
In our company, we do not assign a person in charge of interns, but all the employees support them in various ways, so Amiri had good communication with all employees and enjoyed going out with them on holidays.
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- Mr. Inoue Shinji and Mr. Yoshida Atsushi, persons in charge of business in Africa. At a lightning museum where various goods are displayed
He came from Rwanda where there is a lot of lightning damage, and he happened to know about lightning countermeasures in our company. He then wondered if there might be some ways to protect people and electrical equipment from lightning, using our technology.
In Rwanda, 60 to 70 people die or are injured by lightning per year. They even suffer damage at home due to lightning.
In April 2016, we dispatched a survey team to see what we could do against thunderbolts in Rwanda.
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- Installation of lightning sensors
Our company is the one and only manufacturer specializing in lightning countermeasures in Japan.
All the employees, including the president, always keep it in mind to protect people’s life from lightning.
However, no one in the company had ever been to Africa, and it was the first time that we dispatched a survey team abroad from the company.
Since then, our relationship with Rwanda has begun.
Initially to be honest, I thought that it would be difficult when I was asked to work for lightning countermeasures in the whole of Rwanda. However, thanks to the connection with Amiri and support from people specializing in Africa, I now broaden my perspectives that Japanese technology may be utilized to lightning countermeasures for ICT and communication equipment not only in Rwanda but also throughout Africa.
Sep 27, 2019
- Date : September 27, 2019
- Name : Mr. Inoue Shinji
