The World’s Greatest Japanese

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (国立天文台) and others (Koji Ohta and others of Kyoto University, Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo) discovered a primitive galaxy almost as large as the Milky Way Galaxy, and announced it in Nature Magazine, Aug. 1. 1996. Ohta, K., Yamada, T., Nakanishi, K., Kohno, K., Akiyama, M. and Kawabe, R., “Detection of Molecular Gas in the Quasar BR1202 – 0725 at Redshift z = 4.69″ , Nature 382 (1996) 426 Read More »

Japan supported revolutionaries in colonies around the world. President Sukarno in Indonesia was one of them. Read More »

In the mid-19th century, when the artists in Europe were exposed to the influx of the decorative artworks from Japan, they were fascinated by the unique artistic insight and imagination in them. Especially, Ukiyoe 浮世絵, the Japanese woodblock painting, became a crucial source of inspiration for many innovative artists, and exerted a considerable influence on the development of the new styles of arts including Impressionism and Art Nouveau. Read More »

In June 1955, a former Lieutenant-General, Aketo Nakamura, who had served as Commander of the troops of the Imperial Army of Japan stationed in the country, was invited to the Kingdom of Thailand under the honored title of state guest. Read More »

Construction on the access bridge to Kansai International Airport (KIX) was finished in March 1994 and was opened to traffic in September of the same year. It has a total length of 3,750m and is the longest truss bridge in the world. The bridge supports both road and rail access to the airport. Read More »

In September 2005, Honda Motor Co. Ltd (ホンダ) was the first to develop an air bag system for 2-wheeled vehicles to be included in mass production. The air bag reduces injury to the rider in the case of a front-end collision. Read More »

When Einstein stayed in Japan for a lecture in 1922, he said, “During these several weeks, I have come not only to respect Japan as a scientific nation, but also love it from the standpoint of a human being. I have been in Japan for more than a month, and I have been specially impressed by how modest and sincere Japanese people are. Read More »

Minoru Saito (斉藤 実) completed a non-stop solo circumnavigation of the world by sail, becoming the oldest challenger at the age of 71.
In 2006 Saito was the first Asian to receive the Blue Water Medal, the greatest honor among amateur yachtsmen.
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Kanehiro Takaki (高木 兼寛) was a pioneer in the investigation of beriberi in the late 19 century.
He was the first to discover that beriberi was caused by nutritional deficiency.

At the time, soldiers in the Imperial Japanese Navy suffered from beriberi. Takaki, Director General of Japanese Naval Medical Services, noticed a correlation between the diet of sailors and beriberi. In the course of improving the diet, he succeeded in eradicating the disease in the Japanese Navy. Read More »

Yumemai-ohashi was built between Maishima, the artificial island built in the Gulf of Osaka, and Yumeshima Island in the Konohana Ward of Osaka City in 2001. This was the first floating turntable bridge constructed in the world. Read More »

In 1890, Torajiro Yamada, 24 years old at the time, felt great sympathy for the Turkish ship in distress Ertugrul. He walked throughout Japan collecting donations which he took to Turkey. Read More »

The samurai history is very old. It can be traced back to the ninth century, when local powerful families and influential farmers became armed in order to prevent infringements by enemies. This developed into the samurai class system before long. Read More »

Bangladesh’s national flag was established from the model of the Japanese flag of the Rising Sun. The red circle on the flag expresses the sun that rises, while the green conveys the rich earth. Moreover, the red symbolizes the blood of those killed in the war of independence. Read More »

Toru Takemitsu (武満 徹) was a giant in international contemporary music. While writing music in the Western tradition, he preserved the legacy of Japanese cultural tradition and brought it into a remarkable synthesis with the Western and Japanese instrumentation and sounds.

Takemitsu gained the worldwide recognition as a composer when his Requiem for strings (1957) was hailed as a masterpiece by Igor Stravinsky in 1958 during his visit to Japan.

In 2002, Ayako Uehara (上原 彩子) became the first woman (and Japanese citizen) to win the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. She is less than 5 feet tall, yet she played the music of Tchaikovsky with great volume and grandness. People all over the world were stunned by her performance. Read More »

Knitting machine maker Shima Seiki Mfg (島精機製作所). has a 90% domestic share and 60% world share in a computer controlled flat knitting machine. The enterprise was inaugurated in Wakayama in 1962.
In 1995, the Whole Garment flat knitting machine was introduced. It creates knitted articles three-dimensionally without cutting or sewing. About 3,600 sets were shipped by the end of March  2005 to the West and within Japan. Read More »

The sensational discovery of “Neutrino Oscillation” theory provides valuable predictions and plays an important theoretical role in the development of neutrino physics. Read More »

The world’s first digital camera with a liquid crystal display was made by CASIO (カシオ) and put on the market in 1995. It became a big hit. Read More »

In April, 2007, the International Whistlers Convention was held in North Carolina, U.S. Around 100 whistling artists from different countries gathered there. At this convention, three Japanese people won the championship. It was the first time at the International Whistlers Convention that the Japanese were crowned as grand champions. Read More »

On December 18, 1997, Tokyo Bay Aqua-line opened. It is the motorway where Ukishima in Kawasaki City (Kanagawa Prefecture) connects with Nakashima in Kisarazu City (Chiba prefecture). The total length of this line is 15.1km, with a tunnel length of 9.576m ascending and 9.583m descending, making it the best undersea tunnel in the world constructed by the shield tunneling. Read More »