Best Japanese Invention of the 20th century
LoopyByteloose
Posts: 12,537
This is a poll of what you think the Japanese believe to be their best invention of the 20th century, not your own opinion.
But feel free to say what is your favorite in your postings.
But feel free to say what is your favorite in your postings.
Comments
On second thought, the real answer is probably something like Hello Kitty.
Clearly the best Japanese invention ever was the Zawasaki 900 Z1 motorcycle from 1972
http://www.kawasakiz1.com/
"Tamagotchis are a small alien species that deposited an egg on Earth to see what life was like, and it is up to the player to raise the egg into an adult creature.[3] The creature goes through several stages of growth, and will develop differently depending on the care the player provides, with better care resulting in an adult creature that is smarter, happier, and requires less attention. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi
Of course the real answer is instant noodles.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1067506.stm
-Phil
Google does not provide any evidence that Japan had anything to do with inventing any of the others. Which is as I would expect.
The instant noodle was invented by a guy from Taiwan so they don't have much of a claim on that either.
I might vote for "Japanese manufacturing and quality processes" ... or Tempura.
@Jazzed.
Good idea except the famous Japanese quality control came to them from the USA. After they invited Dr. W. Edwards Deming to educate them has to how to fix their poor quality post war production.
http://logistics.about.com/od/qualityinthesupplychain/a/TQM.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming
Mind you, top marks to the Japanese for actually caring enough to do it. I read somewhere that half the reason Deming ended up in Japan is that nobody in USA/Europe was much interested in improving their quality.
Now that is a brilliant idea. Unfortunately very unlikely to happen.
Truly great Japanese inventions include:
The Yagi Antenna.
FLASH memory.
Blue laser.
The Electric Rice Cooker.
Mono sodium glutamate.
Meth amphetamine.
So here is the definitive quote from Wikipedia's entry on instant noodles.
According to a Japanese poll in the year 2000, "the Japanese believe that their best invention of the twentieth century was instant noodles."[6] As of 2010, approximately 95 billion servings of instant noodles are eaten worldwide every year. China consumes 42 billion packages of instant noodles per year – 44% of world consumption – Indonesia, 14 billion; Japan, 5.3 billion, Vietnam 4.8 billion, USA 4 billion. Per capita, South Koreans consume the greatest amount of instant noodles, 69 per capita per year.[7]
- Footnote 6 "Japan votes noodle the tops". BBC News. 2000-12-12. Retrieved 2007-04-25.BBC News
- Footnote 7 "National Trends in Instant Noodles Demands". World Instant Noodles Association (WINA).
In other words, it is mass produced food technology that leads over all the gadgets. I suppose it might be Coca Cola for the USA or the McDonald's french fry.And for what it is worth, the inventor was a Japanese-Taiwanese.
Turn's out we were better off with our fish'n'chips, pie'n'mash etc before all these foreigners turned up with their Big Mac's and noodles.
Hmmm. You say no evidence that Japan had anything to do with inventing any of the other?
The transistor radio I believe was Sony's starting point in reaching out to mass markets.
And while the jet engine is still being debated as to whether the English or the Germans developed the first one, it seems that the Germans provided their jet engine to be covertly installed in a Japanese airframe that flew in 1944-5. The Germans did fly a jet airplane in 1939.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokosuka_MXY7
If you go to Ueno Park in Tokyo, there is a Science and Industry Museum there with one of the jet engines that was actually used. It is worth seeing. But I am not sure which one it is.. probably an NE-20 and maybe it was only on temporary loan to the museum.
I think Green Tea Ice Cream was a California invention, but I have had Wasabi Ice Cream in Japan and suspect they did that first.
Of course, the Taiwanese might argue that the inventor of instant noodles was really a Taiwanese born in Japanese Occupied Taiwan that was working for a Japanese company. So the true home of the instant noodles might be considered to belong to Taiwan.
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The final test for the instant noodle will be if it goes to Mars on a Chinese sponsored space voyage. Americans would probably provide Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.
That's not to take away from all the development that was put in by Sony and such like to bring us the "trany" that we all knew and loved.
new "14 transistor radio".
They didn't develop their own written language. They borrowed and adapted Chinese that was brought to them by Buddhist monks. And even Buddhism was imported from China. Rice, tea, silk... all from China.
To make it more zany, they claim to have been created from out of the sea and to never had any origin in the Chinese mainland. Some of the neolithic pottery links Japan to Finland, Sweden, Siberia, and Northern Russia.
OK, Let's talk about the worst Japanese inventions.
Top of the list must be karaoke.
You can drive for days in the forests of Finland and finally stop for a beer in a village bar in the middle of nowhere. What the hell?. It's karaoke night. Let's get out of here. It's just everywhere.
I believe it is some kind of revenge on the western world for Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
However it would not surprise me if there was a link between the Finns and the Japanese. Finnish language and culture is quite unlike anything in the rest of Europe.
I guess now a days genetic analysis could suggest some links.
He, he. I'm just thinking I could rephrase that a bit.
The more I learn about British culture, the more amazed I am that they became a leading world economic power.
They didn't develop their own written language. They borrowed and adapted, French, German, Greek, Latin, Viking... that was brought to them by whoever invaded at the time. And even Christianity was imported from Israel, via Rome. Rice, tea, silk... all from China.
Similar insular island race characteristics I guess.
Many just eat them dry, straight out of the package without the condiments. Asians seem to prefer these to potato chips... less oil and less salt.
Factory noodle are made in line of machines. I am beginning to wonder if one could build a tower that had a microcontrolled process and would take the dough, work it through a series of roller and cutters to provide ready to cook fresh noodles at the bottom.
Most pasta machines I have seen for home use require the user to reinsert the dough for additional rolling and cutting.
And.... for the 21st century we have AKB48
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKB48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEYWTrACFDE
I'm sorry but how can that be suggested as a "best invention"!!!! It's hard enough trying to pick up food with chopsticks, let alone having a fan blow it away from them.
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