I regret to announce the passing of Dr. Kaoru Ando in November, at the age of 83. He was formerly president of IFIP, director and member emeritus of the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ), executive director of Fujitsu Limited, and president of Fujitsu FACOM Information Processing Corporation.
In his lifetime, he held a point of view and an abundance of experience that could be termed nothing less than "global," making him something of a rarity among his contemporaries. In 1937, after graduating from the Department of Management Studies of Indiana University in the U.S., he joined the Watson Statistical Accounting Machines Corp. of Japan (now IBM Japan Ltd.), where he was involved in the sale of punched card systems. Immediately following the end of the Second World War, Dr. Ando became a consultant to the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers in such areas as social statistics, economic statistics, and social analysis and simulations.
He then returned to IBM Japan Ltd. and helped launch the Japanese general-purpose-computer business. Following this, he became an executive director and served as a special advisor to IBM Asia Ltd. After joining Fujitsu FACOM Information Processing Corporation in 1966, he was broadly successful in the information processing industry, not only in Japan but also on an international scale. In the autumn of 1974, he was awarded the Medal with Blue Ribbon from the Japanese Government for his contribution to industrial computerization in Japan.
In 1977, the IPSJ appointed him to be the Japanese representative to IFIP, and during his first General Assembly, he was elected IFIP trustee. The next year, he was elected vice-president, and in 1983 he became the first Japanese president of IFIP.
Following this successful career, he was quite active as the chairman of the international committee of the IPSJ.
While meeting his obligations in the highly responsible role as president of IFIP, Dr. Ando was also involved in establishing and running such international organizations as the Japan-America Institute of Management Science (JAIMS). His work helped to encourage more internationally oriented viewpoints and attitudes among the people in the Japanese information processing industry.
With his great, magnanimous personality, Dr. Ando advocated, from early on, the importance of information literacy and cross-cultural understanding -- through IFIP, JAIMS, and his personal computer network. I cannot help but admire him all the more for the visionary ideas he shared with us.
Dr. Ando worked very hard to realize the information processing society of the future. He was a global citizen about whom Japan could proudly boast, and a man who was still very much needed by his country. I regret that the world will no longer be able to benefit from his contributions to the information industry.
Takuma Yamamoto President Emeritus, Fujitsu Limited
published in IFIP NEWSLETTER -- vol. 15, no. 1; March 1998