KYOCERA Corporation
KDDI CORPORATION
Japan Airlines Co., Ltd.
INAMORI FOUNDATION
November 29,2019
TOKYO, Nov. 29, 2019 Dr. Kazuo Inamori, a global entrepreneur and philanthropist, today received the title of Honorary Knight Commander of the Host Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) from Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom.
The honor, bestowed in Japan by His Excellency Paul Madden, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom, during an investiture ceremony at the Ambassadors residence, was announced by Kyocera Corporation, KDDI Corporation, Japan Airlines Co., Ltd., and the Inamori Foundation.
Inamori is founder and chairman emeritus of Kyocera; chairman emeritus and honorary advisor of KDDI; honorary advisor of Japan Airlines; and founder of the Inamori Foundation.
The honorary KBE title recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions to society as a whole. Other recipients have included Bill and Melinda Gates, Steven Spielberg, Alan Greenspan, James Watson, Bono and Ralph Lauren.
Paul Madden ,British Ambassador to Japan (left) Dr. Kazuo Inamori (right)
(C) British Embassy Tokyo
Dr Inamori Kazuo honoured by the Queen
In recognition of his distinguished services to relations between the UK and Japan in variety of fields, Paul Madden, the British Ambassador to Japan, has presented Dr Inamori Kazuo, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Kyocera Corporation, Honorary Adviser of KDDI Corporation and of Japan Airlines, and Founder and President of Inamori Foundation with an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, at an investiture ceremony held at the British Embassy Tokyo on 28 November 2019.
The companies that Dr Inamori founded, Kyocera and KDDI, have created thousands of jobs and revitalised local economies across the UK, including data centres in the London Docklands which carry more than half the public internet traffic in Europe. At Japan Airlines, Dr Inamori played a critical role in negotiating the contract to purchase Airbus aircraft. The Kyoto Prize that Dr Inamori created was recognised 12 eminent British individuals with awards since 1984. With support from the Inamori Foundation, the Blavatnik School of Government at oxford University established the Universitys newest department as one of the worlds foremost schools for public policy, educating and inspiring future generations of leaders to improve governance throughout the world for the benefit of mankind.
For his personal leadership and commitment, the British Ambassador Paul Madden salute Dr Inamori, and delighted to congratulate Dr Inamori on the award of an Honorary Knighthood.
This is really more of an honor than I deserve, Inamori stated. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude.
Inamori established Kyocera at age 27 and began devoting himself continuously to the development and marketing of advanced ceramic materials. After the deregulation of Japans telecommunications market, he established DDI Corporation (now KDDI) with the goal of lowering long-distance calling fees. In 2010, at the age of 78, he accepted a volunteer assignment as chairman of Japan Airlines, leading it out of bankruptcy, returning it to solid profitability, and relisting it on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. As a philanthropist, he established the non-profit Inamori Foundation and the Kyoto Prize in 1984 to honor researchers and artists who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement and development of humankind, in order to realize his lifelong belief that human beings have no higher calling than to strive for the greater good of humanity and the world.
Inamoris most recent engagement with the UK began with a lecture he gave at the Embassy in 2013. The following year, he was invited to speak at the University of Oxford. Subsequently, the university proposed hosting an annual lecture series as a forum for each years Kyoto Prize laureates to discuss their lives and works. The Kyoto Prize at Oxford series began in 2017 within the Graduate Schools Inamori Forum, building closer ties between Japan and the UK.
I feel that the conferment of this honor represents the greatest praise for the activities that Kyocera, KDDI, Japan Airlines, and the Inamori Foundation have fostered together with the British people in their respective histories, Inamori continued. I want to share this honor with everyone in each company. I will continue to make efforts so that the friendly relationship between Japan and the UK may further develop in favorable ways forever.
About KYOCERA
Kyocera Corporation (TOKYO: 6971) (
https://global.kyocera.com/), the parent and global headquarters of the Kyocera Group, was founded in 1959 as a producer of
fine ceramics (also known as advanced ceramics). By combining these engineered materials with metals and integrating them with other technologies, Kyocera has become a leading supplier of industrial and automotive components, semiconductor packages, electronic devices, solar power generating systems, printers, copiers and mobile phones. During the year ended March 31, 2019, the companys consolidated sales revenue totaled 1.62 trillion yen (approx. USD14.6 billion). Kyocera appears on the Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators 2018-19 list by Clarivate Analytics and is ranked #655 on Forbes magazines 2019 Global 2000 list of the Worlds Largest Publicly Companies.
About KDDI KDDI is a telecommunication service provider in Japan, offering both mobile and fixed-line communications. With its well-established base of over 40 million subscribers, and through mobile services and shops offering its au brand, KDDI is expanding its services into the Life Design business, which includes e-commerce, fintech, nationwide electric power utility services, entertainment and education. With a 36-year history, KDDI is now focusing on creating smart infrast
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
19/11/2025
November 19 2025, 08:00 (PST) BAY AREA HOST COMMITTEE AND DOLBY PARTNER TO DELIVER IMMERSIVE FAN EXPERIENCES
During the Week of Football's Biggest Game...
19/11/2025
Michael D. Higgins: Ireland's Ninth President features RT Archives footage and interviews across seven decades
Watch Wednesday 19 November at 9:35pm on RT...
19/11/2025
Scripps Research scientists receive $1.1 million to advance AI modeling for HIV vaccine development New AI system helps scientists rapidly pinpoint the most pro...
18/11/2025
Independent media across Central America are operating under intensifying financial pressure, yet there is a clear appetite for models that can sustain both ind...
18/11/2025
NBA Debuts New Comms Infrastructure and Systems for RefereesTwo-phase rollout is intended to improve game flow, enhance officiating accuracyBy Dan Daley, Audio ...
18/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: How Aggreko Delivers Certainty For Broadcasters On The Wor...
18/11/2025
Kiswe Extends DTC Products With Kiswe Core Cloud-Based Tool for Distributing Con...
18/11/2025
Spanish Basketball Federation partners with ScorePlay to power digital transform...
18/11/2025
HBS selects BBright encoders and decoders to connect ST 2110 live production wor...
18/11/2025
Ashes to Ashes: Inside TNT Sports' hybrid and maverick' production plan...
18/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: Mimi Fotopoulos, Director, Talent and Production Operations, Tenn...
18/11/2025
SVG LIVE! Conference Explores the Tech Side of Sports and Entertainment ConvergenceLive sports and music productions increasingly share gear and infrastructureB...
KYOCERA Corporation
