The winners of the IT Management Awards 2012 for Small and Medium Enterprises are listed below.
* The text in parentheses indicates the location of the company headquarters or the company/organization the winner belongs to.

(1) Grand Prize (METI Minister's Award): Three winners

Metrol Co., Ltd. (Tachikawa City, Tokyo)

Kobayashi Manufacture Co., Ltd. (Hakusan City, Ishikawa)

Mottox Inc. (Higashi-Osaka City, Osaka)

(2) First Prize (Co-sponsor heads' awards): Ten winners

[The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry President's Award]

Inden-ya Uehara Yushichi Corporation (Kofu City, Yamanashi)

Access Co., Ltd. (Hirakata City, Osaka)

[Central Federation of Societies of Commerce and Industry Chair's Award]

Makura Co., Ltd. (Abiko City, Chiba)

Yoshihana Limited (Kaga City, Ishikawa)

[National Federation of Small Business Associations Chair's Award]

Kawashima Industry Co., Ltd. (Seki City, Gifu)

crossEffect, Inc. (Kyoto City, Kyoto)

[Information-Technology Promotion Agency Chair's Award]

Shogetsu Sangyo Co., Ltd. (Sendai City, Miyagi)

Miyako Tec Co., Ltd. (Kyoto City, Kyoto)

[IT Coordinators Association Chairman's Award]

Yuki Precision Co., Ltd. (Chigasaki City, Kanagawa)

Nishimura Co., Ltd. (Sabae City, Fukui)

(3) Special Prize: Four winners

[Commerce and Information Policy Bureau Director-General's Award]

Kappe Inc. (Chiba City, Chiba)
Assisted company: Mottox Inc. (Higashi-osaka City, Osaka)

Ex Corporation (Osaka City, Osaka)
Assisted company: Metrol Co., Ltd. (Tachikawa City, Tokyo)

Ascot Corporation (Osaka City, Osaka)
Assisted company: DALC, Inc. (Ishikari City, Hokkaido)

[Small and Medium Enterprise Agency Director-General's Award]

Daiji Takahashi (King Parts, Limited)

(4) Jury's Encouragement Prize: six winners

DALC, Inc. (Ishikari City, Hokkaido

mizuno-machinery, Inc. (Toyama City, Toyama)

Workup Co., Ltd. (Kyoto City, Kyoto)

Daisen (Osaka City, Osaka)

Doctor of the Earth Co., Ltd. (Osaka City, Osaka)

King Parts, Limited (Fukuyama City, Hiroshima)

Twenty-three entities won awards, among 180 applicants.

Besides the above awards, METI recognizes companies and cooperatives practicing IT management in a way that meets certain criteria (e.g., optimization within the company) by certifying them as "Certified IT Management Companies/Organizations." Those certified this year are hereby announced.

The business environment for companies is rapidly changing, driven by advances in information technology (IT), including the Internet. More and more companies regard IT as a new business tool and are effectively using it to enhance their business management capacity. These companies capitalize on IT to implement their aggressive strategies, for example, to move beyond the subcontracting business, meet short delivery times and high-mix low-volume production, and promote strategic management by visualizing operations, rather than just rolling out traditional conservative strategies, such as improving operational efficiency. This kind of enterprise effort is called IT management.

In FY 2007, METI established the "IT Management Awards for Small and Medium Enterprises," which aim to honor, in the names of the METI Minister and the heads of other related organizations, SMEs that have achieved superior IT management and are acting as role models for other SMEs attempting to implement IT management. In FY 2011, the fifth year of the award program, METI is conducting the "IT Management Awards for Small and Medium Enterprises 2012."

The commemorative event and the award presentation ceremony for the IT Management Awards for Small and Medium Enterprises 2012 will be held as follows:
*Entire ceremony will be conducted in Japanese.

Date:

Friday, February 24, 2012, 15:00-18:00

Venue:

Iino Hall and Conference Center, 4th floor of Iino Bldg. (1-1, Uchisaiwaicho 2-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo)

Application:

Accepted at the portal website below (admission free)

• http://www.juas.or.jp/seminar-event/academy/detail.asp?SEMICODE=433006 (in Japanese)

February 8, 2012

Local Informatization and Human Resource Development Office, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau