At 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning, with bustling crowds milling about in the Binjiang street market, Hito­shi Mizunuma arrives at the market on the back of a scooter driven by his wife, Chen Liru. He’s here to buy groceries. After more than 20 years in Taiwan, he still doesn’t have the courage to ride a scooter here himself. Mrs. Mizu­numa efficiently buys the week’s worth of grocer­ies that her hubby set out in a list. She pays for the grocer­ies, and Mizunuma follows behind carrying the bags.

Anyone familiar with the Japanese manga and live-­action drama series What Did You Eat Yesterday? might well think of Mizunuma as the Taiwan version of the lawyer Shiro Kakei in that story. Just like Kakei, Mizunuma is a stickler for leaving the office as soon as his shift is over, carefully budgets all grocery purchases, and cooks all the meals for his wife and daughter. But don’t be deceived by such homebody interests—at work he’s a shark, busily arranging technical assistance to help other firms develop cutting-edge semiconductor components, embedded firmware, and much more.

Mizunuma came to Taiwan 23 years ago not because his Japanese company transferred him here, but because his girlfriend was from Taiwan. After they married, he followed her back to Taiwan and settled down in his ­adopted homeland.

Time with family is the happiest thing in life.

To Taiwan, with love

Mizunuma was majoring in mechanical engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology when he met Chen Liru, a student from Taiwan working at a soba noodle shop.

After three years together, the two decided to make things permanent, and it occurred to Mizunuma that rather than ask her to find work in Japan, it would be easier for him, with his tech expertise, to carve out a career in Taiwan. And so they started a family in Taiwan.

But despite his strong academic background and experi­ence working in software, Mizunuma had a surprisingly tough time finding a job to his liking in Taiwan. “Well then,” he thought to himself, “success goes to those who prepare, no?” So he spent an entire year concen­trating on improving his Chinese.

The following year he found a job at the Taiwan branch of Toshiba, which at the time was the biggest semiconductor maker in Japan.

The overseas branches of Japanese companies back in those days maintained two parallel groups of employees. In Taiwan, for example, one group comprised Japanese nationals sent by the company to Taiwan to maintain communications with the parent company, while the other group comprised Taiwanese engineers who were responsible for communicating with local customers. But Mizunuma was a Japanese tech professional who also knew Chinese, and so was able to handle both roles.

Hitoshi Mizunuma uses his fluent Mandarin to share information on the latest trends and market conditions in the electronics industry. (courtesy of Hitoshi Mizunuma)

Bilateral cooperation brings results

Upon joining Toshiba, Mizunuma first worked as a field application engineer, in which capacity he helped customers resolve circuit errors and bugs. But the semiconductor industry requires an extremely high level of technical expertise. Originally proficient only in software, Mizunuma earned a master’s degree in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineer­ing at National Taiwan University, and continued directly on from there to the PhD program, where he focused on computer architecture to bring his know­ledge of hardware up to speed.

A decade ago, digital televisions were steadily taking over the market. Toshiba, as a leading manufacturer of high-frequency semiconductor devices, controlled key technologies needed for the manufacture of digital TV modulators, while Taiwan’s MediaTek produced high-performance system-on-a-chip (SoC) products. With Mizunuma serving as liaison, the two companies got together to make digital televisions to Japanese speci­fica­tions. The resulting products came to command a 100% market share in South America, and Mizunuma twice received the President’s Award, Toshiba’s top honor for its employees.

Six years ago, to help train talent for industry, Mizunuma started teaching at in-service training events and seminars organized by the Industrial Development Bureau of Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Grace Wu is the Asia Pacific general manager of Aspenc­ore, the owner of US-based Electronic Engineering Times (EE Times), the world’s largest digital industry media platform. In her opinion, the fact that Mizunuma is able to use his fluent Mandarin to share information on the latest trends and market conditions in the electronics industry is a big plus for senior tech executives and leaders of venture capital firms around the world.

Mizunuma’s main job involves motor drive and power semiconductor device technologies, which support the manufacturing processes of Toshiba’s Taiwan customers.

Lifelong devotion

Mizunuma frankly acknowledges that the products he designs are often canceled or withdrawn from the market due to poor timing or other reasons, but he remains confident that where there’s a will, there’s a way: “When you experience failure, you have to hustle back to the laboratory and work with other engineers to find solutions and roll out a new replacement product.”

Toshiba Japan commands the second-largest global market share for motor drives and power semi­conductor devices. Mizunuma has discovered that Toshiba, by tapping into Taiwan’s strengths in industrial automation and consumer household appliance manufacturing, “can do more than earn money from its customers; more importantly, it can help its customers earn money.”

He states with pride: “When there’s a problem in a manufacturing process, our competitors have to go back to head office R&D engineers for help, but our customers can take the initiative to adjust algorithm para­meters or adjust equipment on their own. They have the professional expertise to drive next-generation motors.”

Kelven Pan is the Taiwan general manager of Runner Group, a world-leading provider of interior design services and manufacturer of interior furnishings. As a former R&D engineer and a long-time acquaintance of Mizunuma, Pan says: “Mr. Mizunuma expects a lot of himself. He never stops communicating, and sees things through to the end. That’s why he’s a close and like-minded partner of our company.”

Heart and home in Taiwan

Always eager to learn new things, Mizunuma gets up every morning at 5 a.m. to engage in study. He takes delight in his work of integrating different types of techno­logies: “It’s fun! And furthermore, I’m the only one who can get it done.”

Mizunuma has become quite at home in Taiwan, and says: “When I speak in Japanese, I feel I am Japanese. When I speak in Mandarin, I feel I am Taiwanese.” But these days he speaks Mandarin most of the time. Indeed, he admits with a chuckle that the last time he got in touch with the head office in Japan he suddenly couldn’t remember how to say “novel coronavirus” in Japanese.

His one child, a daughter named Suiri who is currently enrolled at National Chengchi University, is the only one around that he can speak with in his native tongue. There’s a term in Japanese—ikigai—which refers to a special something that brings joy and makes life worth living. For Mizunuma, Taiwan is what brings warmth to his life and a sure-fire feeling of happiness. And on top of that, Taiwan is where he practices his profession.       

Hitoshi Mizunuma goes grocery shopping with his wife on weekends, and then chooses recipes from more than 200 on his computer to cook up the family meals.

To make Japanese-style udon noodles, Hitoshi Mizunuma personally deep-fries wheat gluten pieces and mixes them in with tofu skin, green veggies, hard-boiled eggs, pork slices, and spring onions. He’s a stickler on every detail.

Hitoshi Mizunuma with his wife and in-laws at Himeji Castle in Hyogo, Japan. (courtesy of Hitoshi Mizunuma)