When we think about Japanese innovations, the first thing that comes to mind is advanced robots or modern cars. But it was inconspicuous inventions from the Country of Cherry Blossom have revolutionized our daily lives. Some of them are so common that we don’t even realize their Japanese origin.
From the kitchen to the bathroom
Take, for example, electric rice rice – The invention that changed the lives of millions of households. In 1945, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation released the first such device, but it was far from perfection. Only when the Yoshitada Minami came up with the idea of adding a thermostat in 1956 that the ricers became reliable kitchen equipment. Today it is difficult to find an Asian house without this device.
How about canned coffee? This is also a Japanese idea! UCC UESHIMA COFFEE CO. In 1969, it introduced the first canned coffee – an idea that initially seemed crazy, but quickly conquered the world. Today, machines with warm and cold canned drinks are an integral part of the Japanese landscape.
The Japanese revolutionized … toilets! In 1980, the Toto company created “washlet” – a toilet with a heated board, bidet function and automatic rinsing. Today, advanced toilets are standard in Japanese homes and are slowly conquering the rest of the world.
Technological revolution
The breakthrough in transport took place in 1964, when Japan presented to the world Shinkansen – “missile” moving at a dizzying speed at 210 km/h, now it accelerates up to 320 km/h. This not only shortened the journey from Tokyo to Osaka from 6.5 to 2.5 hours, but also initiated the era of super -fast trains in the world. Interestingly, despite the huge speeds, Shinkansen boasts zero indicator of fatal accidents!
Seiko However, it revolutionized the world of watches. On Christmas 1969, the company released Seiko Quartz Astron – the world’s first quartz watch. It cost as much as a middle class car, but began a revolution in the watchmaking industry.
From music to smoking
In 1979, Sony completely changed the way we listen to music. Walkmanoriginally called “Soundabout“, he was supposed to be a gadget for young people. The first forecasts talked about selling 5000 pieces a month. Reality? Over 500,000 devices sold in the first two months! It was Walkman who initiated the era of personal listening to music.
Also classic Cigarettes did not defend themselves in Japan against innovation. In November 2014, Nagja was one of the first two cities in the world, where IQOS tobacco heaters (now available in the ILUMA I series) debuted, in which tobacco is not burned and heated. As a result, since the introduction of this technology, not only the sale of classic cigarettes, but also the percentage of smokers – the latter has dropped by half.
Interestingly, even doctors were allowed to inform people addicted to nicotine about the alternative in the form of heaters (only when other methods of fighting addiction were inefficient). An example of Japan is now often cited in the context of the so -called Reduction of damage, i.e. an approach that assumes that if someone does not want or is unable to quit smoking, it may consider switching to something less toxic.
Communication of the future
Do you know that Emoji is also a Japanese invention? In 1997, the Skywalker DP-2111 SW phone introduced the first 90 black and white emoticon. Today, Unicode contains over 3000 emoji, and their number is constantly growing. It was these small pictures that revolutionized the way we communicate on the web.
Japan also gave us QR codes (invented by Denzo Wave in 1994), digital cameras (the first consumer DS-X model released Fujifilm in 1989), telephones with the camera (SHARP J-SH04 from 2000) or CD and DVD technology (Sony and Philips joint project).
All these inventions show that Japanese innovation is not about creating complex robots, but about improving the everyday life of ordinary people.
And that’s how I understand innovations, something that allows us to improve our lives by using the time known and sometimes less known solutions. Innovations often come from “laziness” against repetitive, unwanted activities and sometimes from the needs of making your life easier or improving its status.
