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President Furuno Explains OCEAN 5.0 and the Corporate Vision
To achieve sustainable and long-term growth, FURUNO introduced its Ultra-Long-Term Vision in July 2024, centered around the concept of OCEAN 5.0. In this interview, the President shares what OCEAN 5.0 truly means, how it shapes Furuno’s corporate vision, and his outlook for the future.
FURUNO is approaching its centennial milestone in 2048. As we chart our course toward this historic moment, we've unveiled our ultra-long-term strategy: the "100-Year Corporate VISION: Ocean Gift for ALL." Launched in July 2024, this transformative vision sets the stage for our contribution to the future society concept "Ocean 5.0: Coexistence and Co-prosperity with the Sea*" anticipated by 2050. This roadmap ensures FURUNO continues evolving as a force for positive change, remaining an indispensable partner in society's progress.
Today, we sit down with President Yukio Furuno to explore the vision's genesis and his aspirations for the innovative minds shaping our tomorrow.
*Ocean 5.0: Coexistence and Co-prosperity with the Sea: Our proprietary future society concept, crafted through extensive research of marine futures literature and environmental studies, envisioning the world of 2050. We've categorized the ocean's evolution across five transformative eras: "1.0 Discovering Ocean's Gifts," "2.0 Freedom to Navigate," "3.0 Human-Centric Ocean Dominance," "4.0 Sustainability Quest," leading to our current "Ocean 4.0" era as we advance toward the ultimate "Ocean 5.0" future.
Table of Contents
The Genesis of Our Vision
──What inspired the creation of "100-Year Corporate VISION: Ocean Gift for ALL"?
Over recent years, our research divisions and business units have been driving roadmap initiatives forward. However, to unlock our next growth phase, we must think beyond conventional timelines—envisioning 2040, 2050, and beyond. This realization sparked our need for a sustainable ultra-long-term vision that serves as our North Star, defining how we aspire to exist and contribute to society. The foundation of this vision rests on our internally developed future concept "Ocean 5.0," which our next-generation project team—comprised primarily of young innovators who will lead us into the future—spent considerable time refining. They explored both the social and economic value propositions, ultimately crystallizing their insights into "100-Year Corporate VISION: Ocean Gift for ALL."
While some may view this as a dramatic leap from our current reality, we're committed to bridging this gap through backcasting methodologies, aligning with existing mid-to-long-term strategies and roadmaps, and identifying new implementation challenges to enhance feasibility.
Simultaneously, we're embracing co-creation opportunities with like-minded organizations to forge an unprecedented contribution to society's "navigation"—both literal and metaphorical.
Navigating Toward 2050's "Ocean 5.0" Future
──Your dedicated website showcases the "Ocean 5.0: Coexistence and Co-prosperity with the Sea" worldview. Can you paint a picture of what the "Ocean 5.0" era looks like?
If we define our current era as "Ocean 4.0: Sustainability Quest," then the emerging "Ocean 5.0" represents a paradigm shift where ocean's bounty becomes accessible to all living beings. This isn't just about receiving from the sea—it's about giving back, creating an era of true coexistence and co-prosperity with our oceans.
Historically, humanity's pursuit of ocean benefits led to pollution and overfishing, degrading marine ecosystems. In the Ocean 5.0 era, we envision pristine ocean health coexisting with universal access to marine benefits. This isn't merely futuristic speculation—it's the world we're actively creating through FURUNO's technological innovation and social responsibility. Our pillars include seamless land-sea-air logistics systems, next-generation sustainable fisheries that protect while providing, and comfortable, sustainable maritime living. While the future remains unwritten, we're determined that by our centennial in 2050, this vision becomes reality.
"Ocean 5.0" represents our proprietary future society framework. Though not yet a public standard, we hope it becomes the universal language for marine development and social challenge resolution.
The Ocean 5.0 important themes (maritime data, maritime distribution, marine resources, marine disaster, marine environment, marine biodiversity, maritime health and lifestyle)
A guidepost to help us continue being a presence that builds the future
──The "100-Year Corporate VISION: Ocean Gift for ALL" emerged from your young project team's initial exploration. How did you feel seeing 2050's aspirations expressed in this format?
Honestly, I was amazed by their visionary thinking, though I'll admit there was some distance between their future-focused perspective and our traditionally hands-on business approach. However, I recognize that such bold vision is exactly what we need for our next growth trajectory.
This vision's foundation came from 18 months of intensive dialogue and analysis by young employees who will inherit 2050's challenges. Anchored in our timeless principle that "serving society" remains our core purpose across all eras, they employed both backcasting and forecasting methodologies to imagine our future. Initially, they explored possibilities beyond marine—land, air, even space—but ultimately concluded that FURUNO's strength and social responsibility center on "the ocean and its surrounding ecosystems."
Their future-focused efforts radiate with passion to "transform the world" and "shape tomorrow." Each team member deeply investigated their domain's challenges and opportunities, seriously considering how we can contribute to society. As a leader, I'm committed to embracing and advancing their enthusiasm.
Initial development led by our next-generation project team
──With FURUNO's focus on "ocean," how do your land-based divisions contribute?
Oceans cover 70% of Earth, profoundly influencing land and air systems. Our marine heritage forms our foundation, and the technologies we've cultivated there now expand to terrestrial applications. Learning in one domain and applying innovations elsewhere—that's growth, and it's essential for sustainable corporate evolution. Consequently, we aim to transcend departmental boundaries—land, sea, air—uniting all employees in future-focused innovation.
──Ultra-long-term visions inevitably carry high abstraction levels.
Absolutely. The abstraction level is significant. However, defining our aspirational future and societal contribution approach is crucial. What ocean challenges exist, and which should we tackle? In an era of high uncertainty and difficult predictions, imagining the future and establishing directional clarity prevents us from losing sight of our purpose and goals.
While dedicated daily work remains important, engaging with high-level abstract themes—considering "What can I do for society?"—is essential for individual employee growth. Witnessing young employees' sincere commitment to our founding principle of "serving society" confirmed that this belief lives as our DNA, deeply rooted in FURUNO's culture for future generations. I'm tremendously excited to see how they'll deepen this vision, concretize their aspirations, and draw their desired future closer to reality.
Efforts to make it a vision that leads to contributing towards a new society and marine navigation
──Earlier, towards the beginning, you mentioned the words, "including co-creation with other like-minded companies." Are you considering co-creation with other companies?
FURUNO has long championed open innovation. Developing practical, socially beneficial products rapidly requires diverse wisdom and technological capabilities—innovation through internal and external intelligence convergence is indispensable. Particularly for realizing visions of this magnitude, we believe collaborating with various stakeholders—corporations, research institutions, NPOs, universities—and leveraging each other's strengths unlocks exponentially greater possibilities. To facilitate this, we're eager to learn about FURUNO's future society concept Ocean 5.0 and the FURUNO 100-Year Corporate VISION: Ocean Gift for ALL fostering active dialogue and exchange.
Creating a sustainable future for 2050 and beyond
──Finally, what message would you like to share with everyone?
