is a Japanese web architect who specializes in

international standardization international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Or ...

. Born and raised in Tokyo, he studied history and

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...

at the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...

. After graduating from the university, he joined

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics ( manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the ...

Inc. and started working as an editor. In 1989, he moved to

JustSystems is a Japanese software development house. The company's main products were a word processor, Ichitaro ("JohnnyOne"), a Japanese input method, ATOK. In 2010s, they focus on correspondence education and enterprise software. Description JustSyste ...

Corporation, and got involved in product planning. Setting his goal on the fusion of technology and lingual cultures, he established a supervising committee for promoting

ATOK ATOK (エイトック /ˈeitokku/ or /ˈeɪtɔːk/) is a Japanese input method editor (IME) produced by JustSystems, a Japanese software company. ATOK is an IME with roots from KTIS (Kana-Kanji Transfer Input System) come with JS-WORD, the Japane ...

(Advanced Technology Of Kana-kanji Transfer), which is the trademark of

and is a kana-kanji conversion software. Representing JustSystems, he has been a regular member at the

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

Technical Committee to handle issues related to character sets. Also, as a member of the Japan Committee for ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2, and the chair of the Japan Committee for ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2/IRG, he contributed to formulating ISO.

Works

Standardization projects

* In 1997, he became Director of the

Unicode Consortium The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which was developed with the intentio ...

. * In 1999 he founded Scholex and became an Executive Officer in April 2001. *In March 2001, he made a presentation for the “Language Diversity in Network Society” held by the French Commission for UNESCO in Paris, and in September 2001, for the “Language in Cyberspace” held by the Korean Commission for UNESCO in Soul. * Between 2004 through 2010, he took the chairmanship of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2. * Since 2006, he has been Chairman of W3C Japanese Text Layout Task Force. * Since 2010, he has been a member of the board of directors at the IVS(Ideographic Variation Sequence) Technology Promotion Council. * In 2011, he was appointed Fellow of the Japan Electronic Publishing Association (JEPA)

Participating committees

* JSC2 Committee of Information Technology Standards Commission of Japan (ITSCJ) of the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ) （ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2 and JTC1/SC2/WG2）

Books

* Unicode Senki (ユニコード戦記) (Unicode war chronicle) (2011/6/10) * Internet jidai no moji code (インターネット時代の文字コード) (Character Code in the Internet era) (author & editor) (2002/01) * Tabogurafikkusu (ターボグラフィックス) (Turbo graphics) (coauthor) * Dennou Bunka to Kanji no Yukue (電脳文化と漢字のゆくえ) (Cyberculture and whereabouts of Kanji) （coauthor） * Bunka-toshiteno IT Kakumei (文化としてのIT革命) (IT revolution as a culture)（coauthor）

Awards

Bulldog Award Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

, September 1999

References

Japanese Text Layout Task Force

Requirements for Japanese Text Layout
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J'Lit , Authors : Tatsuo Kobayashi , Books from Japan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kobayashi, Tatsuo 1951 births Living people Japanese computer scientists People from Tokyo People involved with Unicode University of Tokyo alumni