Japan's Tech: Why is Japan a Top Country in G-8?

[Jin Sen Zhang]

Why is Japan one of the top countries in science and technology ( G-8 )? Many American technological experts see Japan as a country that modify the existing technology not as a pioneer country. Why do they rank Japan as one of the leading countries ( G-8 ) in the world? Is there any major technological breakthrough that Japan invented first before the U.S?

 

[Pengwuino]

Japan has been known to take other countries technologies and just make it so incredibly efficient or do wild things with it. They aren't known for "inventing" things, they just modify, tinker, and do other creative things with other countries technologies. Notice how they have some far more efficient vehicles then other countries?

 

[Rach3]

This thread is nonsensical. I think the subtext is obvious to all.

Nationalism drives China, Japan apart

BEIJING – The growing trade between Japan and China in 2005 has been matched by rising symbolic and verbal provocations and a steady decline in public opinion and diplomatic ties - marking a new nadir in relations between the most important competitors for Asia's future...

 

[Pengwuino]

Who said the G-8 is owned by the United States?

Right, off topic.

 

[Rach3]

Many American technological experts see Japan as a country that modify the existing technology not as a pioneer country. Why do they rank Japan as one of the leading countries ( G-8 ) in the world?

It might help to know that the G8 is neither a measure of a country's technology sector, nor is it administered by the United States;

In 1975, French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing invited the heads of state of six major industralized democracies to a summit in Rambouillet and proposed regular meetings. The participants agreed to an annual meeting organized under a rotating presidency, forming what was dubbed the Group of Six (G6)...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G8#Background_and_History

(edited for emphasis to answer Pengwuino's question)

 

[Pengwuino]

Oh ok i see what you meant

 

[scott1]

Japan has been known to take other countries technologies and just make it so incredibly efficient or do wild things with it. They aren't known for "inventing" things, they just modify, tinker, and do other creative things with other countries technologies. Notice how they have some far more efficient vehicles then other countries?

That's not a bad thing btw. It's a good thing about engineering your take someone elses invention and you make it better.

 

[Pengwuino]

Oh no, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Every country has something it's good at and if they want to make things better then they originally were, fine by me.

 

[Rach3]

You haven't substantiated your theory that there are fewer "new ideas" coming from Japan. It doesn't have much credibility in my view - the country of Maglevs and the Super-KK?

 

[0TheSwerve0]

I read an article about Japanese Kogals, a subculture of girls 18-22 (thereabouts) who "defy contemporary demands of adolescent femininity by speaking in raw, outspoken, and unexpected ways. They usurp male privilege by exercising the freedom to use language any way they please." They are not the stereotypical subdued Japanese girls.
http://www.aaanet.org/sla/jla/jla14_2_miller.htm pics at bottom of page

The author (Laura Miller) says, "Regardless of style, young women are at the heart of contemporary Japanese cultural interest and vigor, and it is girls who have been the impetus for many recent technological innovations." So, it may be due in part to heavy demand for new technology.

 

[Pengwuino]

You haven't substantiated your theory that there are fewer "new ideas" coming from Japan. It doesn't have much credibility in my view - the country of Maglevs and the Super-KK?

When you look at the past few decades, they aren't as inventive as most others. I mean you pretty much brought up the 2 big things they can be known for. I'm also fairly sure Maglev's were first developed in Europe... although I could be wrong...

and mind you, we are talking about inventions, not improvements or wide-spread deployment

 

[Rach3]

I asked for substantation; you merely repeated your assertion.

There are so many pathological things about the very question, there's really no point discussing it. For one thing, "invention" is vague and hard to define - what is truly new and groundbreaking? Things usually don't work that way at all; it's usually the PR media who make it look that way with their talk of "revolutionary science...".

 

[Pengwuino]

Is your source of information the media? You also made an assertion with no substantiation. I won't waste my time if you are pre-dispositioned towards not accepting a fact as proof of said assertion; especially ones requiring such time to fulfill.

 

[Rach3]

You're the one with the vague, unsubstantiated hunch about a vague, possibly undefinable, certainly meaningless statistic.

 

[Gokul43201]

The VCR, CD, DVD, pacemakers, bioceramics, lean manufacturing and blue LEDs are a few developments from Japan that come to mind.

 

[Pengwuino]

VCR: Dutch
CD: Dutch
DVD: Dutch/Japan
pacemaker: external-Canadian, internal - swedish
blue LED: Japan

Couldn't find the other 2 although the LED section in wiki looks interesting. By the way, the Dutch references are Phillips.

mind you I am talking about the absolute first maker, not.. a japanese company getting it a month later and developing from it

 

[Gokul43201]

If I recall correctly, SONY and Phillips partnered on both the CD and the DVD. As for the VCR, I may be using the wrong terminology, but the first domestic use video recorders (ones that didn't cost a million bucks and occuppy half an office room) were developed in Japan. I could be wrong about this though.

PS : Wiki says nothing about Japan in the pacemaker article. Not sure where I got that idea from - but it's one that's been stuck in my head for a while.

 

[Pengwuino]

If I recall correctly, SONY and Phillips partnered on both the CD and the DVD.

For the DVD, yes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD

In the early 1970s, using video Laserdisc technology, Philips' researchers started experiments with "audio-only" optical discs, initially with wideband frequency modulation FM and later digitized PCM audio signals. The compact disk was thus developed by Philips from its own 12 inch Philips Laservision disks. At the end of the 1970s, Philips, Sony, and other companies presented prototypes of digital audio discs.

Bold part is all I am interested in, I am only talking about very first origination

 

[Pengwuino]

If I recall correctly, SONY and Phillips partnered on both the CD and the DVD. As for the VCR, I may be using the wrong terminology, but the first domestic use video recorders (ones that didn't cost a million bucks and occuppy half an office room) were developed in Japan. I could be wrong about this though.

The U-matic? (according to wiki). They made that as the "first commercially available videocassette recorder". "VCR" was first introduced by phillips though. So i guess its more accurate to say the Japanese were the first to come out with a commercially viable video casette recorder

 

[Gokul43201]

Here's an article on Lean Manufacturing :

http://www.mamtc.com/lean/intro_intro.asp

 

[Moonbear]

Pengwuino, by your criteria, how many new inventions come out of any country? You really don't see something completely new and never before considered by anyone else all that frequently.

The ability to take some existing technology and change it so much as to make it smaller, more efficient, longer-lasting, etc., IS innovation and invention. How many of the individual, internal components have they had to engineer to make that happen?

 

[FredGarvin]

Also, there are probably a thousand related innovations/inventions related to the processes to produce items that never get seen.

 

[Pengwuino]

Pengwuino, by your criteria, how many new inventions come out of any country? You really don't see something completely new and never before considered by anyone else all that frequently.

The ability to take some existing technology and change it so much as to make it smaller, more efficient, longer-lasting, etc., IS innovation and invention. How many of the individual, internal components have they had to engineer to make that happen?

So being an invention doesn't count as being an invention anymore? No one said there was an abundance of new inventions being made throughout the world and i even specifically made it clear that innovation is different from invention as far as this thread is concerned.

 

[Rach3]

There haven't been any inventions. Not since the brilliant American physicist, and inspired genius, Thomas Edison, invented light. Thus ending humanity's ages-old reliance on echolocation.

 

[phun]

Why is Japan one of the top countries in science and technology ( G-8 )? Many American technological experts see Japan as a country that modify the existing technology not as a pioneer country. Why do they rank Japan as one of the leading countries ( G-8 ) in the world? Is there any major technological breakthrough that Japan invented first before the U.S?

The poster is probably not an expert(or even a student) in any sci/tech field, and the intention of this thread is dubious, partly suggested by his/her ID.

 

[kaos]

Arent they very good in robotics?? And i think they make very good cars.