Masahiro Hara, inventor of the QR Code, was awarded an honorary doctorate

President Hirose conferred the degree on Mr. Hara

On Friday, September 15, Hosei University conferred an honorary doctoral degree on Mr. Masahiro Hara, the chief engineer of Denso Wave Corporation, the inventor of the QR Code, and a graduate of Hosei University's Faculty of Engineering.

Mr. Hara entered Hosei University from Hosei University Hosei Daini Senior High School graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, and joined Nihon Denso Co. After developing barcode scanners and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) devices, he invented the QR (Quick Response) code that we all see today on a daily basis, and developed it into an international standard code. For this remarkable achievement, he received the Japan Academy Prize, the Imperial Prize, and the European Inventor's Prize.
For this invention, Mr. Hara was granted a patent related to the QR Code, but in order to spread the use of the QR Code as quickly as possible, he dared to open the patent so that anyone can use the QR Code as long as it conforms to JIS/ISO standards. Today, QR Codes are used on a daily basis in various scenes in the world, such as obtaining product information, hyperlinks in URLs, and payment by smartphones, and have become an indispensable social infrastructure in today's information society.
Hosei University decided to honor Mr. Hara's notable achievements in the development of the QR Code and to present him with an honorary doctoral degree from Hosei University in recognition of his remarkable activities that have led to the development of the QR Code into an international standard.

About 300 people attended the degree conferment ceremony and celebration held on the Koganei Campus on the same day. Hosei University President Katsuya Hirose presented Mr. Hara with an honorary doctoral degree. The ceremony was followed by a commemorative lecture by Dr. Hara on "The Development and Growth of QR Code, which Changed Society.
The ceremony was attended by many students from the Koganei Campus as well as related parties. Many students from the Koganei Campus attended the ceremony, and they were enthusiastic about and praised the achievements of their seniors.

(QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.)