Impact of communications on business and the nation's prosperity has been greater than ever before in recent years in an age in which the Internet links the world in which words, pictures and all the information they contain can be instantly transmitted around the globe.

Still, this is not the beginning of the history of the use of communication by human societies.

How could the homo sapience, our ancestors, managed to survive in the fierce competition for survival? The important role of communications with words is emphasized here. Homo sapience could survive by ability to accurately communicate to each other the location of prey, even when surrounded with darkness and thus deprived of visual cues-- that is, to communicate with words. (NHK "4.6 billion years of Earthly Evolution: Journey to Humanity ['Chikyu Dai Shinka 46 Okunen: Jinrui e no Tabi']," December 2005)

Communication might not be necessary for someone living alone on a South Pacific island like Robinson Crusoe. But as soon as two or more people are present, so is politics, and it is communication that mediates between the actors. A thorough ability to communicate can even be seen as an absolute requirement of survival within a society.

Unlike race of hunters constantly on the move in search of prey, Japanese society developed around the emergence of village communities which took on the work of agricultural production. This led to the development of an extraordinary ability to communicate intentions without clearly expressing them in words.

And while one implication of this was a decline in the significance of proactive modes of communication, the entire world has been opened up by the emergence of the Internet and the advent of simultaneous worldwide transmission of information. Thus, for Japanese people and Japanese society, the need for proactive communication has become an unavoidable fact of life.

A wide range of organizations including government, associations, businesses, schools, hospitals, and recently NGOs as well, have all come to make increasing use of communications' consultants as they realize how important communications are to their success. Country promotion, for instance, can help attract investment, improve the public image of a nation, and so forth. Educational activities among hospitals and patients can promote the use of new treatments for diseases like cancer or arthritis. Consultants can also help find solutions to problems such as how a corporation can most fairly and ethically carry out information disclosure, or how it can best persuade the public about the value of a given product in order to reinforce the company's brand. These are just a few of the countless areas in which communication professionals can help.

Focused Communications Co., Ltd. is first and foremost a gathering of professionals dedicated to advancing the most effective, up-to-date communications projects available. Please don't hesitate to contact us so that we can support your success with ever more effective communications.

President and CEO Akemi Ichise