In 2000, Ken Sato, then-president of ROHM Co. Ltd., and conductor Seiji Ozawa founded an educational project - the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy with the objective of nurturing young musicians through opera. One of Ozawa's mentors, Maestro von Karajan, used to say, "Symphony and Opera are two inseparable supports of music." Ozawa made this his philosophy and puts it into practice once a year with the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy.