The new fiscal year has begun. Fiscal year 2025 was a “milestone” year, so I want Fiscal year 2026 to be a year of “creation.” As is well known, two major services that represented Japan disappeared at the end of March.

One was “Town Page,” the paper telephone directory provided by NTT East and NTT West. It covered local governments and businesses, supporting people’s lives for 136 years. The paid directory assistance service “104” also ended at the end of March.

The other was “i-mode,” the world’s first mobile phone-only internet connection service, provided by NTT Docomo. With the shutdown of 3G, i-mode, which revolutionized communications and surprised the world, also disappeared.

While a sense of sadness arises at the disappearance of these two services that were deeply rooted in people’s lives, where services disappear, new services are bound to be born.

In fiscal year 2026, I hope to see the emergence of new services that, like Town Page and i-mode, become closely integrated into people’s lives and become beloved.

I believe such services will likely emerge from the AI ​​field, but it’s also possible that impactful services could suddenly appear from unexpected areas, so we mustn’t be complacent.

Wars are erupting all over the world, inflation is raging like a storm, and life is getting harder day by day. The future is uncertain, and people’s spirits are easily dampened and their hearts become cold. Sometimes I’m left speechless by how terrible the world has become, but it’s precisely in times like these that exciting services are needed.

I myself sometimes feel depressed and want to leave this world and return to the earth, but then I remind myself that it’s precisely because of times like these that we must create something that makes people happy and excited. So, I try to stay active, even if it’s a little difficult, and somehow manage to remain in this world.

I hope that 2026 will be a year of “creation.”

(Kei Kitajima)

※Translating Japanese articles into English with AI