Jun’ichiro Kakizaki

Japanese

1942

Jun’ichirō Kakizaki co-founded the Japanese Computer Technique Group (CTG) in December 1966 and handled its hardware, designing the control circuitry for the group’s machines. Employed at Japan Business Automation from 1965, he was the only founder already in full-time work. Decades later he reverse-engineered the surviving controller of APM No. 1, CTG’s automatic painting machine, so that its workings could be documented.

Full Bio

Jun’ichirō Kakizaki studied electronic engineering at the University of Electro-Communications, writing his thesis on bandwidth compression, and joined Japan Business Automation in 1965, which made him the only CTG founder already in full-time employment.

He was Tsuchiya’s high-school classmate, sharing his obsession with building radios — and, it is said, consistently out-building him. Kakizaki handled CTG’s hardware. While the others wrote programs, he designed the control circuitry that turned the group’s ideas into working machines. After the group dissolved, he continued on that path, filing a patent in 1971 for a magnetic-tape control device that was, in essence, the same control-circuit engineering he had done for CTG.

Decades later, Kakizaki reverse-engineered the surviving controller of APM No. 1, the group’s automatic painting machine, so that its workings could finally be documented. Kakizaki has remained close to his alma mater: he led EATEC, the University of Electro-Communications’ entrepreneurs’ association, as its chairman. Its website holds thirteen of his personal essays.