Wang (on the right side), provincial governor of Hubei awarding the prize to Tsunoda

Mr. Tsunoda is an authentic pioneer of automotive electronics industry. He has participated in R&D as well as mass production of the first generation navigation products of Nissan. Moreover, Tsunoda is also regarded as an authority on electronic map of vehicle navigation system and he led the development of the world’s first hard-disk-based navigation system which supports difference update. He has been proficient in navigation & location information service, automotive electronics development and large-scale project management, etc. Besides, he is an expert on navigation data information services, intelligent transportation and automotive electronic development services.

Mr. Tsunoda is known to be a leader in automotive electronics field, founder of Kiwi-W consortium, ISO member and a director of Japan Digital Road Map Association. He is devoted to the research of cutting-edge technology. Other than that he is always passionate about promoting technical exchanges between China and foreign countries. Tsunoda has introduced experts from abroad to share their experience with Kotei. And during his tenure as president of Kiwi-W consortium, he helped to send Kotei's technicians to KIWI Japan for technical exchanges on navigation data format. CECOV was founded with the help of Mr. Tsunoda. Thanks to his efforts, automotive electronics industry has maintained a sustained, rapid and sound development so far.

Tsunoda (third from the left) and other 9 recipients of the award

Following Kenji Suzuki in 2014, Masakazu Tsunoda has become the second staff of Kotei to win the award. They both are getting on in years, but they still work for automotive electronics industry as energetically as young men do. They themselves have perfectly embodied the spirit of Kotei.

● Profile of Masakazu Tsunoda
Mr. Tsunoda has been proficient in navigation & location information service, automotive electronics development and large-scale project management, etc. Besides, he is an expert on navigation data information services, intelligent transportation and automotive electronic development services.

● Leading-edge technologies
Mr. Tsunoda has been engaged in a number of innovative international projects, including the operation management system of Nissan's Global navigation data center, navigation data difference update theory, massive data management, foundation of the data center, daily operation, disaster recovery and backup management and the based-on-database navigation format PLUMS (the first navigation format to support difference update). He is the one who guided Kotei towards advanced core technology of next generation and helped to enhance international competitiveness of Kotei.

● Promotion of KIWI format standardization
As a member of Kiwi-W consortium, Mr Tsunoda has been working on the standardization of KIWI format. In 1997, the consortium completed KIWI-Ver1.0 which had been proposed as a candidate (in ISO/TC204/WG3) to be the global standard. It was later issued as TS（Technical Specification）in 2005, and JIS-D0810 (Japanese industrial specification) in March 2004.

● Experience exchanges
Mr. Tsunoda visited Kotei many a time to give lesson about his research experiences. For instance, he once introduced his personal story to explain why it is necessary for a developer to always try or do something new. Years ago, Tsunoda himself tried everything he could to realize the voice function of navigation system. In order to get the desired effect, He even persuaded his wife, who comes from a musical family to help him with voice recording. His efforts finally paid off and he became the first one to realize the voice function in history.

● Promotion of technical exchanges
Mr. Tsunoda is always passionate about promoting technical exchanges between China and abroad. Moreover, CECOV was founded with the help of Mr. Tsunoda. Thanks to him, automotive electronics enterprises in China have been given more opportunities than before to exchange their ideas with car makers abroad. He has contributed greatly to increasing overall level of automotive electronics industry of China.