On the Brink

Takuya Kitagawa was born in Nishinomiya, Japan, a city famous for hosting the high school baseball tournament, "Koshien", making it a major center for Japanese high school baseball. In his freshman year of high school, Takuya participated in a foreign exchange program to the United States through which he spent a couple months in Wisconsin and then some time in San Antonio, Texas, where he was allowed to attend a university associated with the high school for some of his classes. After returning to Japan, Takuya considered various university options before committing to Harvard University in Boston, where he majored in mathematics and physics. He continued on at Harvard until he received his Ph.D. During his studies, Takuya met Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten, who invited Takuya to join Rakuten and lead their Artificial Intelligence (AI) efforts. Takuya accepted and joined Rakuten starting as the only member of his group. The department grew from one person to over one thousand people over just ten years. Takuya became a management executive after six years, managing all of Rakuten's Research and Development (R&D) and AI departments across international offices in Japan, China, Singapore, India, France, and throughout the U.S.

After leaving Rakuten, Takuya worked on creating a startup company in the U.S. One year later, Alexander Keesling, then the CEO of QuEra, and Mikhail Lukin, the founder of QuEra, invited Takuya to join the company's executive team.

Iroha: What projects are you currently working on?

Takuya: I am the President of QuEra. Our company builds quantum computers based on the neutral-atom system. I am generally responsible for business side of the company, including building and executing strategy, organizational managements, operations, sales & marketing as well as fundraising.

I also heavily get involved with scientists and engineers in the company because technology is really the core value of our company, and frankly I enjoy it quite a bit with my background.

Iroha: What do you plan to do in the near future? 

Takuya:  I lived in Boston for nine years from when I was an undergraduate and graduate student in Harvard. In 2023, and I returned to Boston to work for QuEra. QuEra is very promising. We recently successfully raised money from our strategic partner, Google, and we are set up well for growth. We believe we can become the leaders in this industry; this means we have a great chance to become the next NVIDIA in the quantum computing world.  

Iroha: What are your thoughts regarding Asian hate and Asian glass ceiling issues?

Takuya: Fortunately, I never experienced or felt too much Asian hate. That may be for a couple reasons. First, I began my career as a physicist, and I was in academia. Scientists are fair people who care more about the value of ideas than who they come from, and you are treated with respect when you present interesting ideas. Secondly, I was lucky to be in the great environment that is Harvard for most of my experiences in the U.S. This place deeply cares for the equality of people, and I was fortunate to have friends who are very caring and who went out of their way to make things right in the world.

In terms of the Asian glass ceiling, I do not think I have experienced it; if there is anything that prevents me from having more opportunity, I would attribute it to my own skills. For example, it is true that English is my second language, and I do not control the language as well as other native speakers do. Especially because I currently play a critical role for QuEra, I feel the need to improve my English skills, both in speaking and writing, but I would say this is a typical challenge for first generation immigrants. QuEra is a startup with people from diverse backgrounds, and we have the healthy culture of caring more about results.

Iroha: Based on your background, do you have any advice or a message for young people who want to follow in your footsteps?

Takuya: One distinct aspect of my experiences so far is that I dramatically changed my career twice. I think I could have taken on a professorship if I were to have continued on with academia, but I switched out to work in industry. After I became a managing executive of Rakuten, I then switched out of the corporate executive world to become a startup entrepreneur in another country.

The smartest advice I’ve heard, which I believe comes from Kenichi Omae, is: when changing jobs or trying to diversify your experiences as a professional, there are three things you can change:

  1. You can change the place you work, such as the country or company;
  2. You can change what you do, such as your job description or role; and
  3. You can change your friends, including the colleagues you work with.

You should only change only one of these at a time.

If you notice my career path, I changed all three at the same time. Twice. While I do not regret those choices, I have to tell you, changing all three things at once was not a good idea. I think I went through unnecessary hardship and challenges by doing it this way.

The reason I chose these dramatic changes is because I am very driven by my curiosity. I see something completely different, offering a completely different life, and I go fulfill my curiosity and change everything.

Diversifying experiences is a must-have in this era when technology and life norms are changing rapidly. Just because you are in academia, do not think you cannot go into industry or vice versa. Diversify your experiences and embrace opportunity. It will improve your life. However, when you do so, try to only change one thing at a time, or at most two things. Continuity in your life is meaningful and very healthy, so try to maintain that in some aspect even through the changes you decide to make.

Iroha: Outside of work, what are you most interested in right now?

Takuya: I have a two year old son, and I try to spend time with my family as much as possible. I honestly never thought of myself as someone who really loves spending time with children. However, my wife and I experienced challenges in conceiving a child, and this experience made me appreciate having a child and family a lot more than before. In the U.S., we don’t really go out at night, so I spend a huge amount of time with my family in the evenings and over the weekends, and I just love that experience.

Another thing I am interested in is “well-being”. I founded the Well-being Foundation for Planet Earth with my friends. The foundation supports academic studies of how to measure well-being and promote well-being within society. The foundation worked to have Japanese governmental policy include well-being as a goal. In the latest G7 international quorum, Japan proposed the goal of driving well-being in addition to global GDP. Japan reminded everyone present that our goal wasn’t to become richer but to become happier.

The well-being foundation collaborates with Gallup, adding questions to their World Happiness Report survey to include more Eastern culture and Asian perspectives. For example, Gallup's questions focus on the well-being of individuals, but we added a question that emphasizes collective well-beings as it is often valued in Asian culture. Another example is the value of connection with Nature; Shintoism, a popular philosophy in Japanese culture, is centered around the concept of Nature. Many Asian countries believe how close you are to nature really matters to well-being. Contributing to this global well-being assessment has been very exiting and important to me.

  

written by Jessica Woolsey / photography : 

Takuya Kitagawa's LinkedIn 

QuEra