Technological Innovation of Japan.

1. TECHNOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENT

2.  is a development which has changed people's life.
 Strictly speaking a technological development is, quite simply, a development
(improvement, alteration) of a technology. It doesn't need to change
peoples' lives and doesn't even need to be put into service.
 The Technological Innovation System is a concept developed within the scientific
field of innovation studies which serves to explain the nature and rate of
technological change. A Technological Innovation System can be defined as ‘a
dynamic network of agents interacting in a specific economic/industrial area under
a particular institutional infrastructure and involved in the generation, diffusion, and
utilization of technology’.

4. TV REMOTE CONTROL - 1955
it marks the official end of humanity's struggle for survival and the beginning of its quest for
a really relaxing afternoon. The first wireless remote, designed by Zenith's Eugene Polley, is
essentially a flashlight. When Zenith discovers that direct sunlight also can change channels
on the remote-receptive TVs, the company comes out with a model that uses ultrasound; it
lasts into the 1980s, to the chagrin of many a family dog. The industry then switches to
infrared.

5. MICROWAVE OVEN - 1955
In 1945 Raytheon's Percy Spencer
stands in front of a magnetron (the
power tube of radar) and feels a candy
bar start to melt in his pocket: He is
intrigued. When he places popcorn
kernels in front of the magnetron, the
kernels explode all over the lab. Ten
years later Spencer patents a "radar
range" that cooks with high-frequency
radio waves; that same year, the
Tappan Stove Co. introduces the first
home microwave model.

6. BIRTH-CONTROL PILL – 1957
Enovid, a drug the FDA approves for menstrual disorders, comes with a warning: The mixture
of synthetic progesterone and estrogen also prevents ovulation. Two years later, more than
half a million American women are taking Enovid—and not all of them have cramps. In 1960
the FDA approves Enovid for use as the first oral contraceptive.

7. INDUSTRIAL ROBOT – 1961
The Unimate, the first
programmable industrial robot, is
installed on a General Motors
assembly line in New Jersey.
Conceived by George C. Devol Jr. to
move and fetch things, the invention
gets a lukewarm reception in the
United States. Japanese
manufacturers love it and, after
licensing the design in 1968, go on
to dominate the global market for
industrial robots.

8. COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - 1962
Telstar is launched as the first "active" communications satellite—active as in amplifying and
retransmitting incoming signals, rather than passively bouncing them back to Earth. Telstar
makes real a 1945 concept by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who envisioned a global
communications network based on geosynchronous satellites. Two weeks after Telstar's
debut, President Kennedy holds a press conference in Washington, D.C., that is broadcast live
across the Atlantic.

9. GPS-1978
The first satellite in the modern
Navstar Global Positioning System
(GPS) is launched. (The GPS's
precursor, TRANSIT, was developed in
the early 1960s to guide nuclear
subs.) It is not until the year 2000,
though, that President Clinton grants
nonmilitary users access to an
unscrambled GPS signal. Now, cheap,
handheld GPS units can determine a
person's location to within 3 yards.

10. DNA FINGERPRINTING - 1984
Molecular biologist Alec Jeffreys devises a way to make the analysis of more than 3 billion
units in the human DNA sequence much more manageable by comparing only the parts of
the sequence that show the greatest variation among people. His method quickly finds its way
into the courts, where it is used to exonerate people wrongly accused of crimes and to finger
the true culprits.

11. ROBOTS
The world's first android, DER 01, was developed by a
Japanese research group, The Intelligent Robotics Lab,
directed by Hiroshi Ishiguro at Osaka University, and
Kokoro Co., Ltd. The Actroid is a humanoid robot
with strong visual human-likeness developed by
Osaka University and manufactured by Kokoro
Company Ltd. (the animatronics division of Sanrio).
It was first unveiled at the 2003 International Robot
Exposition in Tokyo, Japan. The Actroid woman is a
pioneer example of a real machine similar to imagined
machines called by the science fiction terms android
or gynoid, so far used only for fictional robots. It can
mimic such lifelike functions as blinking, speaking,
and breathing. The "Repliee" models are interactive
robots with the ability to recognise and process
speech and respond in kind.

12. Ninja robot
Invented by Shigeo Hirose, it is capable of
climbing buildings and a seven-ton robot capable
of climbing mountainous slopes with the aim of
installing bolts in the ground so as to prevent
landslides.

15.  Compact Disc (also netherlands
company Philips)
Sony first publicly demonstrated an optical
digital audio disc in September 1976. In
September 1978, they demonstrated an
optical digital audio disc with a 150
minute playing time, and with
specifications of 44,056 Hz sampling rate,
16-bit linear resolution, cross-interleaved
error correction code, that were similar to
those of the Compact Disc they
introduced in 1982.
 Flash memory
Flash memory (both NOR and NAND
types) was invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka
while working for Toshiba c. 1980.
 Blu-ray Disc
After Shuji Nakamura's invention of
practical blue laser diodes, Sony started
two projects applying the new diodes:
UDO (Ultra Density Optical) and DVR
Blue (together with Pioneer), a format
of rewritable discs which would
eventually become the Blu-ray Disc.

17. Bullet train
 The world's first high volume capable (initially 12 car maximum) "high-
speed train" was Japan's Tōkaidō Shinkansen, that officially opened in October
1964, with construction commencing in April 1959. The 0 Series Shinkansen,
built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, achieved maximum passenger service
speeds of 210 km/h (130 mph) on the Tokyo–Nagoya–Kyoto–Osaka route,
with earlier test runs hitting top speeds in 1963 at 256 km/h.
Electronically-controlled continuously variable transmission
 In early 1987, Subaru launched the Justy in Tokyo with an electronically-
controlled continuously variable transmission (ECVT) developed by Fuji
Heavy Industries, which owns Subaru.
Kei car
 A category of small automobiles, including passenger cars, vans, and pickup
trucks. They are designed to exploit local tax and insurance relaxations, and in
more rural areas are exempted from the requirement to certify that adequate
parking is available for the vehicle.

18. Japan is a leading nation in scientific research,
particularly technology, machinery and biomedical
research. Some of Japan's more prominent
technological contributions are in the fields of
electronics, automobiles, machinery, earthquake
engineering, industrial robotics, optics, chemicals,
semiconductors and metals. Japan leads the world in
robotics production and use, possessing more than
half (402,200 of 742,500) of the world's industrial
robots.