worked for Microsoft during the 1980s as Vice President of the Far East operations. In 1986, Kazuhiko Nishi left Microsoft to devote himself mostly to ASCII Corporation to develop the MSX standard together with NEC executive Kazuya Watanabe. Today ASCII is the biggest multimedia empire on the west side of the Pacific. Since 1986 Nishi has written for newspapers and authored a number of books. He sat in several committees on behalf of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and he is presently a member of the Committee for World Economy in the 21st Century. He is also the president of MSX Association a private organization originating from an assembly of people with affinity with the MSX standard.