Okuma’s Shuji Ogawa was selected in the General Machinery and Equipment Assembly and Repair Section (Metalworking Machine Assembly) of the 2013 Contemporary Master Craftsman awards. The Contemporary Master Craftsman system, under the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, is intended to honor technicians with outstanding skills who are recognized as leaders in their fields.

Mr. Ogawa joined Okuma in 1970. He was engaged for many years in the work of assembling headstock, the most important element of lathes. He has acquired great skill in the assembly of large diameter headstock, which has the highest level of difficulty. He has also worked to train many technicians as a skills test assistant and as Vice-Chairman of the Technician’s Association in the company. He currently works in Okuma’s Oguchi Production Department, where he is involved in the assembly of many large diameter headstocks with bearing inner diameters exceeding φ500 in the spindle headstock assembly section, as well as in the cultivation of younger workers and efforts to improve productivity.

Mr. Ogawa is the sixth Okuma employee to receive this award, following Kaneaki Takeichi in 2003, Yasuo Miyata in 2005, Yoshiyuki Nakagawa in 2007, Kosei Masuda in 2008, and Isao Oyabu in 2012. Okuma is proud to see its employees selected as Contemporary Master Craftsmen, and will continue to foster employees to reach these high levels of skill and work toward spreading the “world of monozukuri.”