is a
Japanese American
are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...
businessman, venture capitalist and former advisor to the
government of Japan
The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, c ...
specializing in
cybersecurity
Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...
.
[
]
Early life and education
Saito was born in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
; his parents immigrated to the US from Japan in 1969, two years before he was born.[
In 1987, Saito graduated from ]Damien High School
Damien High School is an all-boys Roman Catholic high school in La Verne, in the U.S. state of California named for Saint Damien of Molokai. The school had its first graduating class in 1963. Each of Damien's freshmen classes draws from an avera ...
in La Verne, California
La Verne is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 31,063 at the 2010 census, down from 31,638 at the 2000 census.
History
The European history of the area dates back to the 1830s when Ygnacio Palomares ...
.University of California, Riverside
The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...
from the Fall of 1988 to the Fall 1992, and was a student in Riverside's joint Biomedical Science Program with the University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
in 1988.
Career
When Saito was a junior in high school, he started a business in computer security. He later established the company as I/O Software in 1991 when he was a student.[ Among other technologies, I/O Software developed a system to display ]Japanese characters
The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana. Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalised Japanese wor ...
in software written in English, and a fingerprint
A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...
recognition system used by Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
.Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
began a partnership with I/O Software in 2000 to adopt the latter's authentication technology in future versions of Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
. Saito sold the I/O Software business assets to Microsoft in 2004.venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
ist and invested in several Japanese start-ups.Young Global Leader
Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL), was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum. The YGL, a non-profit organization managed from Geneva, Switzerland, is under the supervision of the Swiss government ...
of the World Economic Forum in 2011.
Saito was an advisor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍 晋三, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), President of the Lib ...
on cybersecurity issues. Saito accompanied Abe on a 2015 visit to Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
, where Abe met with the heads of several major technology firms. He was a cybersecurity advisor to the Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...
from 2013 and an advisor to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
The or METI, is a ministry of the Government of Japan. It was created by the 2001 Central Government Reform when the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) merged with agencies from other ministries related to economic activities, ...
until revelations that led to his admission that he misrepresented his education and academic degrees came to light and he resigned these and other posts in 2017.
In May 2019, Saito took a legal action in the Tokyo regional court against Kodansha which published the Shukan Gendai magazine (published on 3 March 2018). Kodansha paid a settlement and deleted the article at the request of the court.[ 東京地方裁判所平成30年（ワ）第9375号2019年5月10日東京地裁判決]
Works and publications
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saito, William
Living people
1971 births
Japanese businesspeople
University of California, Riverside alumni
Damien High School alumni
Businesspeople from Los Angeles