List of Japanese inventions and discoveries

This is a list of Japanese inventions and discoveries. The Japanese have made contributions across a number of scientific, technological and art domains. In particular, the country has played a crucial role in the digital revolution since the 20th century, with many modern revolutionary and widespread technologies in fields such as electronics and robotics introduced by Japanese inventors and entrepreneurs.

Arts

See also: Japanese art

Origami paper cranes (orizuru)

A kamishibaiya (kamishibai artist) in Tokyo, performing Ōgon Bat (1930).

• Kamishibai — Originates from 8th century Buddhist temples, where monks used emakimono ("picture scrolls"), an early combination of picture and text to convey a story.^[1]
  • Costumed superhero — Ōgon Bat (1930) and Prince of Gamma (early 1930s) were the earliest costumed superheroes with superpowers.^[2][3]
  • Mecha — Dai Ningen Tanku from Ōgon Bat (1931) was the first piloted humanoid giant mecha robot.^[4]
  • Superhero secret identity — Prince of Gamma (early 1930s) was the earliest superhero with superpowers and a secret identity.^[2][3]
• Origami — Folded paper began to be used for decorations and tools in Shinto ceremonies, where paper decorations and wrapped gifts in folded paper became stylized and established as ceremonial origami.^[5][6]
  • Paper crane (orizuru) — The kozuka of a Japanese sword made by Gotō Eijō between the 1500s–1600s was decorated with a picture of a crane made of origami.^[7]
  • Yoshizawa–Randlett system — The Yoshizawa–Randlett system is a diagramming system used for origami models. It was first developed by Akira Yoshizawa in 1954. It was later improved upon by Samuel Randlett and Robert Harbin.^[8]
• Revolving stage — Invented for the Kabuki theatre in Japan in the 18th century, the revolving stage was introduced into Western theater at the Residenz theatre in Munich in 1896 under the influence of japonism fever.^[9]

Animation

See also: Anime

Katsudō Shashin (1907), an early anime.

• Anime — Japanese animation, or anime, today widely popular both in Japan and abroad, began in the early 20th century.
• Bishōjo — Several characters created by Hayao Miyazaki are considered icons of the bishōjo boom, the earliest being Lana from the TV series Future Boy Conan (1978)^[10]
  • Moe — The character of Clarisse from Hayao Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) has been cited as a potential ancestral example.^[11]
• Bullet time — The bullet time visual effect originated as a cel animation effect in the anime series Speed Racer (1967).^[12]
• CGI in animated feature film — Golgo 13: The Professional (1983) was the first animated feature film to incorporate scenes with CGI animation.^[13]
  • Photorealistic CGI animated feature film — Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) was the first computer-animated feature film with photorealistic characters.^[14]
• Cyberpunk animation — The earliest animated cyberpunk work was the original video animation (OVA) Megazone 23 (1985).^[15]
  • Digital rain — Originates from the cyberpunk anime film Ghost in the Shell (1995), a strong influence on The Matrix (1999).^[16][17]
  • Postcyberpunk animation/film — The first postcyberpunk media work in an animated/film format was Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex in 2002. It has been called "the most interesting, sustained postcyberpunk media work in existence".^[18]
  • Simulated reality — Megazone 23 (1985) tackled the concept of a simulated reality more than a decade before live-action films such as Dark City (1998), The Matrix (1999) and Existenz (1999).^[15]

• Hadouken — Game designer Takashi Nishiyama credits an energy attack called Hadouho (lit. the "Wave Motion Gun"), from the 1970s anime Space Battleship Yamato, as the origin of Hadouken.^[19]
• Original net animation (ONA) — Makoto Shinkai was a pioneer of ONA, producing the earliest ONA short films, including Tōi Sekai (1997)^[20] and Kakomareta Sekai (1998).^[21]
  • Animated web film — The earliest animated web films were Makoto Shinkai's ONA short films Tōi Sekai (1997)^[20] and Kakomareta Sekai (1998).^[21]
  • Anime web series — The earliest anime web series was the ONA series Infinite Ryvius: Illusion (2000).^[22]
• Real robot — Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) introduced the real robot concept and, along with The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982), formed the basis of real robot anime.^[23]
• Steampunk animation — The earliest example of steampunk animation was Hayao Miyazaki's anime series Future Boy Conan (1978).^[24]
• Superflat — A postmodern art form, founded by the artist Takashi Murakami, which is influenced by manga and anime.^[25]
• Sweat drop — The sweat drop had long been part of manga iconography. The first anime to depict a large sweat drop, when a character is in trouble, is believed to be the 1991 anime adaptation of the manga Goldfish Warning!^[26]
• Time loop animation — The earliest animated work with the time loop concept was Mamoru Oshii's anime film Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984).^[27]
• Virtual idol — Originates from Macross franchise (1982). First virtual idol was Lynn Minmay from Macross.^[28]
• Virtual influencer — The Japanese talent agency Horipro created the first real-life AI virtual influencer, Kyoko Date, in 1995.^[29][30][31]

Architecture

See also: Japanese architecture and Construction industry of Japan

Nagoya Castle

• Capsule hotel — The first capsule hotel in the world opened in 1979 and was the Capsule Inn Osaka, located in the Umeda district of Osaka, Japan and designed by Kisho Kurokawa. From there, it spread to other cities within Japan. Since then, the concept has further spread to various other territories, including Belgium, China, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, and Poland.
• Earthquake-resistant structure — Shinbashira-based pagodas and temples are earthquake resistant,^[32][33] dating back to Hōryū-ji (7th century).^[32]
• Electronic wallpaper — At the FPD 2008 exhibition, Japanese company Soken demonstrated a wall with electronic wall-paper.^[34]
• Japanese castle — Fortresses constructed primarily out of stone and wood used for military defence in strategic locations.^[35]
• Japanese pagoda — The Japanese pagoda originates from the Chinese pagoda, but was adapted for Japan's environment. Notably, the addition of a shinbashira pillar to better withstand earthquakes in Japan.^[32]
  • Tahōtō — Tahōtō is a form of Japanese pagoda found primarily at Esoteric Shingon and Tendai school Buddhist temples. Unlike most pagodas, it has two stories.^[36]
• Metabolism — A post-war Japanese architectural movement developed by a wide variety of Japanese architects including Kiyonori Kikutake, Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki, Metabolism aimed to fuse ideas about architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth.^[37]
• Shinbashira — A central pillar at the core of a Japanese pagoda or temple. The pillar structure is made out of straight trunks of Japanese cypress (hinoki) trees. Hōryū-ji (7th century) is an early example.^[32]
• Wooden building — Hōryū-ji, a Buddhist temple built in the 7th century, is widely recognized as the world's oldest wooden building.^[38][39]

Cinema

See also: Cinema of Japan

Seven Samurai (1954), directed by Akira Kurosawa.

• Blockbuster format — Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) was "the clearest precursor" and "the model for" the Hollywood blockbuster format in the 1970s.^[40]
  • Assembling the team — Seven Samurai (1954) originated the "assembling the team" subgenre of action and heist films.^[41]
  • Modern action film — Seven Samurai (1954) is considered to be the first modern action film.^[42]
  • Cutting on action — Akira Kurosawa's approach to "cutting on motion" has been widely adopted by many Hollywood blockbuster films.^[43]
• Buddy cop — Akira Kurosawa's 1949 Japanese film Stray Dog, starring Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura, is considered a precursor to the buddy cop film genre.^[44]
• Fatality — Fatality finishing moves first appeared in The Street Fighter (1974), a Japanese martial arts film.^[45]
• Jidaigeki — Jidaigeki silent films date back to the early 20th century.^[46]
  • Ninja film — Jidaigeki silent films began depicting ninjas in the 1910s.^[46]
  • Samurai cinema — Jidaigeki silent films began depicting samurai in the 1910s.^[47]
• Kaiju — Yoshirō Edamasa's The Great Buddha Arrival (1934) is one of the earliest examples of a kaiju film in Japanese cinematic history.^[48]
  • Giant monster suit — Eiji Tsuburaya, while working on the film Godzilla (1954), formulated the technique of using a human actor in a creature suit to play a giant monster combined with the use of miniatures and scaled-down city sets.^[49]
• Man with No Name — A stock character that originated with Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), where the archetype was first portrayed by Toshirō Mifune. The archetype was adapted by Sergio Leone for his Spaghetti Western Dollars Trilogy (1964–1966), with Clint Eastwood playing the role of the "Man with No Name" in Japan.
• Time loop feature film — The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983), based on the 1969 novel of the same name, was the first feature film about a time loop.^[50]
• Tokusatsu — Tokusatsu special effects date back to films by Shōzō Makino (from 1914 to 1928).^[51]
  • Suitmation — Eiji Tsuburaya, while working on the film Godzilla (1954), formulated the special effects technique of suitmation, the use of a human actor in a costume to play a giant monster combined with the use of miniatures and scaled-down sets.^[49]
  • Suit actor — A notable early example was Godzilla suit actor Haruo Nakajima.^[52][53]
• Yakuza film — Mark Schilling named Akira Kurosawa's Drunken Angel from 1948 as the first to depict post-war yakuza.^[54]

Comics

See also: Manga and Manga iconography

Hokusai Manga, published in the early 19th century, was an early manga comic book.

• Comic book — Adam L. Kern has suggested that kibyoshi, picture books from the late 18th century, may have been the world's first comic books. These graphical narratives share with modern manga humorous, satirical, and romantic themes.^[55] Some works were mass-produced as serials using woodblock printing.^[56]
• Manga — The history of manga has origins in scrolls dating back to the 12th century, and it is believed they represent the basis for the right-to-left reading style. During the Edo period (1603–1867), Toba Ehon embedded the concept of manga.^[57] The word itself first came into common usage in 1798,^[58] with the publication of works such as Santō Kyōden's picturebook Shiji no yukikai (1798),^[59][60] and in the early 19th century with such works as Aikawa Minwa's Manga hyakujo (1814) and the Hokusai Manga books (1814–1834).^[61][55]
  • Binge-viewing — Shōnen Jump (founded 1968) developed a formula of compiling chapters into standalone tankōbon volumes that could be "binged" all at once.^[62]
  • Cyberpunk manga — Began with Katsuhiro Otomo's manga series Akira (1982).^[63]
  • Lone Wolf and Cub — A genre spawned by Lone Wolf and Cub (1970).^[64] Earliest example of genre is Osamu Tezuka's Dororo (1967).^[65]
  • Magical girl — Princess Knight (1953) was a prototype for the genre.^[66][67]
• Mobile comic — Following the launch of NTT's i-mode (1999), Japanese mobile phone began offering downloadable mobile manga comics.^[68]
• Steampunk comic — Steampunk manga appeared in the 1940s, starting with Osamu Tezuka's Lost World (1948).^[69]
• Super robot — Introduced by Go Nagai's manga series Mazinger Z (1972).^[70]

Digital graphics

See also: Japanese art, Manga iconography, and Video games in Japan

Each of the most popular emoji from the 9 major emoji categories according to the Unicode Emoji Frequency study from 2021, rendered in the Noto Color Emoji font

• 3D computer graphics software — Earliest was 3D Art Graphics, a set of 3D computer graphics effects written by Kazumasa Mitazawa and released for the Apple II in 1978.^[71][72]
• Cel shading — First appeared in Riverhillsoft's video game Doctor Hauzer (1994).^[73]
• Digital Visual Interface (DVI) — Developed in 1999 by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG), which included Japanese companies Fujitsu and NEC.^[74]
• Emoji — The first emoji was created in 1998 or 1999 in Japan by Shigetaka Kurita.^[75]
  • Face with Tears of Joy emoji — NTT DoCoMo's emoji set in 1999 included the "Face with Tears of Joy" emoji.^[76]
• Graphics processing unit (GPU) — Fujitsu MB14241 was the first GPU, used to accelerate framebuffer graphics for Gun Fight (1975) and Space Invaders (1978).^[77]
  • 16-bit GPU — The NEC μPD7220 (1981) was the first specialized 16-bit GPU on a single large‑scale integration (LSI) chip.^[78][79]
  • 32-bit GPU — Sega developed the first 32-bit GPU for the Sega X Board (1987) arcade system.^[80]
  • 3D GPU — From 1985 to 1988, Namco developed the first GPU dedicated to 3D polygon graphics, for the arcade Namco System 21.^[81]
  • Floating-point GPU — The Namco System 21 (1988) had the earliest GPU capable of floating-point arithmetic.^[82]
  • 64-bit GPU — Sega and Fujitsu developed the first 64-bit GPU for the Sega Model 1 (1992) arcade system.^[80][83]
• High color — The Sega Super Scaler (1985) arcade system board introduced a 16-bit color palette.^[84]
  • 24-bit color — The Namco System 2 (1987) arcade board introduced a 24-bit color palette.^[85]
• High resolution (hi-res) — The NEC μPD7220 (1981) GPU introduced hi-res graphics above 480p display resolution.^[79]
  • High-definition graphics (HD) — The NEC μPD7220 (1981) was capable of HD resolutions including 720p and 1080i.^[86][79]
  • Super VGA (SVGA) — In 1988, NEC Home Electronics created the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) to develop the SVGA computer display standard. The development of SVGA was led by NEC.^[87]
  • Ultra-high-definition (UHD) — Hitachi's ARTC HD63484 (1984) GPU was capable of displaying UHD resolutions up to 4K when in monochrome mode. The resolution was targeted at the bit-mapped desktop publishing market.^[88]
• Isometric graphics — Introduced by Data East's arcade video game Treasure Island,^[89] debuted in September 1981.^[90]
  • Isometric scrolling — Introduced by Sega's arcade game Zaxxon,^[91][92] which debuted in December 1981.^[93]
• Scrolling — Introduced by Tomohiro Nishikado's arcade racing game Speed Race (1974).^[94]
  • Vertical scrolling — Introduced by Tomohiro Nishikado's Speed Race (1974).^[95]
  • Side-scrolling — Dates back to Taito's arcade racing game Dead Heat (1975).^[96]
  • Multi-directional scrolling — Introduced by Tomohiro Nishikado's arcade shooter game Interceptor (1975).^[95]
  • Forward scrolling — Introduced by Sega's arcade driving game Road Race (1976).^[95]
  • Parallax scrolling — Alpha Denshi's Jump Bug (1981) introduced a limited form of parallax scrolling.^[97][98] Takashi Nishiyama's Moon Patrol (1982) introduced full parallax scrolling, with three background layers scrolling at different speeds.^[97]
• JPEG arithmetic coding — Patents providing the basis for JPEG's arithmetic coding algorithm include two Mitsubishi Electric patents by Toshihiro Kimura, Shigenori Kino, Fumitaka Ono and Masayuki Yoshida in 1989 and 1990.^[99]
• Multisync monitor — The first was the NEC Multisync, released in 1985 for use with personal computers. It supported a wide range of sync frequencies.^[100]
• PC–TV set — In 1982, the Sharp X1 was the first PC with a TV tuner, functioning as both a computer and television.^[101][102] The RGB display monitor could superimpose a computer screen over a TV screen, allowing both on the same display.^[103]
• Tile-based graphics — The tile-map model was introduced by Namco's arcade game Galaxian (1979), which ran on the Namco Galaxian arcade system board.^[104]
  • Hardware scrolling — The Namco Galaxian arcade system board introduced with Galaxian (1979) pioneered a hardware sprite system that animates pre-loaded sprites over a scrolling background, the basis for later 2D game systems.^[105]
• T&L geometry processor — Fujitsu developed the first 3D T&L geometry processor, called the TGP, for the Sega Model 1 (1992) arcade system.^[83][106]
  • T&L GPU — In 1995, Fujitsu developed the first integrated 3D GPU with hardware T&L.^[107][106]
  • 128-bit 3D graphics vector processor — The Hitachi SH-4 (1997) was the first microprocessor with a 128-bit vector unit specialized for graphics processing.^[108]
• Ray-tracing hardware — In 1982, the first interactive ray tracer was Osaka University's LINKS-1 Computer Graphics System, a massively parallel computer processing system used to render 3D graphics with high-speed ray tracing.^[109]
• Render farm — The LINKS-1 Computer Graphics System (1982) was a massively parallel processing system with up to 256 computer nodes, used to render 3D graphics with high-speed ray tracing.^[109]

Literature

See also: Japanese literature and Japanese science fiction

Kaguya-hime returning to the Moon in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (10th century)

• Isekai — The concept has origins in the story of fisherman Urashima Tarō (8th century), who saves a turtle and is brought to a wondrous undersea kingdom.^[110]
• Novel — Ochikubo Monogatari (10th century) has been called the "world's first full-length novel".^[111] The Tale of Genji (11th century) is often cited as "the first novel".^[112][113]
  • Historical novel — The Tale of Genji (11th century) is considered to be the first historical novel.^[114]
  • I-novel — The first I-novels are believed to be Tōson Shimazaki's The Broken Commandment (1906) and Katai Tayama's Futon (1907).^[115][116]
  • Light novel — Origins trace back to the serialization of Record of Lodoss War (1986–1989) in the magazine Comptiq.^[117] Keita Kamikita is usually credited with coining the term "light novel" in 1990.^[118]
  • Cell phone novel — The first cell phone novel was Deep Love (2002).^[119]
• Science fiction — Urashima Tarō story from Nihongi (720) involves time travel.^[120][121] The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (10th century) is considered science fiction.^[122]
  • Flying saucer — The 10th-century Japanese narrative The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter has a manuscript illustration depicting a round flying machine similar to a flying saucer.^[122]
  • Time travel — The tale of Urashima Tarō from the Manyoshu (8th century), tells of a young fisherman who visits an undersea palace. After three days, he returns home to his village and finds himself 300 years in the future.^[121]
  • Time loop — The earliest novel about a time loop was Yasutaka Tsutsui's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1965).^[123]
• Superhero — Sarutobi Sasuke was a superhero ninja from 1910s children's novels.^{[124][125][126]} By 1914, he had superpowers.^[124]
• Unreliable narrator — Dates back to Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's novel In a Grove (1922) and Akira Kurosawa's film adaptation Rashomon (1950).^[127]

Combat

Airsoft

See also: Airsoft

Airsoft players defending an objective.

• Airsoft — Airsoft originated in Japan, then spread to Hong Kong and China in the late 1970s.^[128]
• Airsoft gun — The inventor of the first airsoft gun is Tanio Kobayashi.

Martial arts

See also: Japanese martial arts

All-Japan Judo Championships, 2007 men's final

• Aikido — Aikido was created and developed by Morihei Ueshiba in first half of the 20th century.
• Bushido
• Judo — It was created as a physical, mental and moral pedagogy in Japan, in 1882, by Kanō Jigorō.^[129]
• Jujutsu — Jujutsu, the "way of yielding", is a collective name for Japanese martial art styles including unarmed and armed techniques. Jujutsu evolved among the samurai of feudal Japan as a method for defeating an armed and armored opponent without weapons. Due to the ineffectiveness of striking against an armored opponent, the most efficient methods for neutralizing an enemy took the form of pins, joint locks, and throws. These techniques were developed around the principle of using an attacker's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it.^[130]
• Karate — It began as a common fighting system known as "ti" (or "te") among the pechin class of the Ryukyuans. There were few formal styles of ti, but rather many practitioners with their own methods. One surviving example is the Motobu-ryū school passed down from the Motobu family by Seikichi Uehara.^[131] Early styles of karate are often generalized as Shuri-te, Naha-te, and Tomari-te, named after the three cities from which they emerged.^[132]
• Kendo
• Mixed martial arts (MMA) — Mixed bouts date back to 1890s Japan.^[133] Other examples included Kimura vs. Gracie (1951)^[134] and Ali vs. Inoki (1976).^[135][136] Modern MMA arose from shootfighting contests like Shooto (1985) to Pancrase (1993).^[137][138]
• Ninjutsu — Developed by groups of people mainly from the Iga Province and Kōka, Shiga of Japan. Throughout history, many different schools (ryū) have taught their unique versions of ninjutsu. An example of these is the Togakure-ryū. This ryū was developed after a defeated samurai warrior called Daisuke Togakure escaped to the region of Iga. Later he came in contact with the warrior-monk Kain Doshi who taught him a new way of viewing life and the means of survival (ninjutsu).^[139]
• Okinawan martial arts — In the 14th century, when the three kingdoms on Okinawa (Chūzan, Hokuzan, and Nanzan) entered into a tributary relationship with the Ming dynasty of China, Chinese Imperial envoys and other Chinese arrived, some of whom taught Chinese Chuan Fa (Kempo) to the Okinawans. The Okinawans combined Chinese Chuan Fa with the existing martial art of Te to form Tō-de (唐手, Okinawan: Tū-dī, Tang hand), sometimes called Okinawa-te (沖縄手).^[140] By the 18th century, different types of Te had developed in three different villages – Naha, Shuri, and Tomari. The styles were named Naha-te, Shuri-te, and Tomari-te, respectively. Practitioners from these three villages went on to develop modern karate.^[141]
• Puroresu
  • Strong style
• Soccer kick — High-profile early users of soccer kicks as a finishing move include Katsuyori Shibata^[142][143] and Antonio Inoki. In a 1977 puroresu match, Inoki used soccer kicks to legitimately knock out Great Antonio.^[144][145]
• Shoot wrestling — Originates from 1970s Japanese puroresu.^[146] The style was pioneered by Antonio Inoki from NJPW and his students at the UWF (1984).^[147]
  • Shoot boxing — Shoot boxing was created in August 1985 by former kickboxer Caesar Takeshi.^[148]
  • Shootfighting
• Sumo — According to the Nihon shoki, published in 720, the origin of sumo is the contest of strength between Nomi no Sukune and Taima no Kehaya in 26 B.C.^[149] Haniwa of sumo wrestlers are made in the Kofun period (300–538).^[150] The imperial family often watches sumo as a form of entertainment in the Heian period (794–1192). It has evolved over the centuries with professional sumo wrestlers appearing in the Edo period (1603–1868).^[151] The word sumo is written with the Chinese characters or Kanji of "mutual bruising".

Military

See also: Samurai, Imperial Japanese Armed Forces, and Japan Self-Defense Forces

The Wakamiya conducted the world's first naval-launched air raids in 1914.

• Air raid — Early in World War I (1914), the Imperial Japanese Navy ship Wakamiya conducted the world's first carrier-launched air raid.^[152]
• Amphibious assault ship — Imperial Japanese Army Akitsu maru is regarded as the first of the kind.
• Dock landing ship — Imperial Japanese Army Shinshu maru is regarded as the first of the kind.
• Fire balloon — A fire balloon, or balloon bomb, was an experimental weapon launched by Japan from 1944 to 1945, during World War II.^[153]
• Diesel-powered tank — The world's first diesel-powered tank, this distinction goes to Japanese Type 89B I-Go Otsu, produced with a diesel engine from 1934 onwards.

Katana

• Katana — The katana were traditional Japanese swords used by samurai warriors of ancient and feudal Japan. The swords originated in the Muromachi period (1392–1573) as a result of changing battle conditions requiring faster response times. The katana facilitated this by being worn with the blade facing up, which allowed the samurai to draw their blade and slash at their enemy in a single motion. Previously, the curved sword of the samurai was worn with the blade facing down. The ability to draw and cut in one motion also became increasingly useful in the daily life of the samurai.^[154]
• Shuriken — The shuriken was invented during the Gosannen War as a concealed weapon, primarily for the purpose of distracting a target.^[155]

Culture

See also: Culture of Japan and Japanese popular culture

Kawaii items, from left to right, top to bottom: shelf of decorated tea kettles; food served at a maid café; Hello Kitty on a sign in Ikebukuro, Tokyo; mobile phone charm attached to a pink Palm

• Folding hand fan — In ancient Japan, the first hand fans were oval and rigid fans, influenced greatly by Chinese fans. The earliest visual depiction of fans in Japan dates back to the 6th century AD, with burial tomb paintings showed drawings of fans. The folding fan was invented in Japan, with dates ranging from the 6th to 9th centuries and later exported to East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the West. Such a flourishing trade involving Japanese hand fans existed in the Ming dynasty times, when folding fans almost absolutely displaced the old rigid type in China.^[156][157]
• Kawaii — Roots date back to The Pillow Book (1002)^[158] and Edo period fashion such as netsuke.^[159]
• Netsuke — A miniature sculpture, originating in 17th-century Japan. Initially a simply carved button fastener on the cords of an inrō box, netsuke later developed into ornately sculpted objects of craftsmanship.^[160]
• Purikura — Conceived in 1994 by Sasaki Miho for Atlus.^[161] In 1995, Atlus and Sega introduced Print Club, the first purikura.^[162]
• Selfie — Modern selfie originates from 1990s kawaii culture,^[163] such as kawaii albums.^[162] Digital selfie originates from purikura in 1995,^[163][164] leading to Japanese mobile phones introducing front-facing cameras for selfies.^[163][165]

Finance

See also: Japanese financial system and Economy of Japan

Scheme of a single candlestick chart.

• Candlestick chart — Candlestick charts have been developed in the 18th century by Munehisa Homma, a Japanese rice trader of financial instruments. They were introduced to the Western world by Steve Nison in his book, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques.
• Futures contract — The first futures exchange market was the Dōjima Rice Exchange in Japan in the 1730s.^[166]

• Mobile payment — Mobile payments began adoption in Japan during the early 2000s.^[167][168]
  • Mobile wallet — In 2004, NTT DoCoMo and Sony introduced the first mobile wallets, for 3G mobile phones in Japan.^[169]
• Smart card — Kunitaka Arimura of the Arimura Technology Institute in Japan independently developed the idea of incorporating an integrated circuit onto a plastic card, and filed a smart card patent in March 1970.^[170][171]

Food and drink

See also: Japanese cuisine

Instant noodles before boiling

• Canned coffee — Canned coffee was invented in 1965 by Miura Yoshitake, a coffee shop owner in Hamada, Shimane Prefecture, Japan.^[172]
• Cooking comic — Manga has long contained references to food and cooking.^[173] Genre emerged in 1970, with Totsugeki Ramen, Cake Cake Cake and Kitchen Kenpo.^[174]
• Fake food — Simulated food was invented after Japan's surrender ending World War II in 1945. Westerners traveling to Japan had trouble reading Japanese menus and in response, Japanese artisans and candlemakers created wax food so foreigners could easily order something that looked appetizing.^[175]
• Instant noodle — Invented by Momofuku Ando, a Taiwanese-Japanese inventor, in 1958.^[176]
• Monosodium glutamate — Invented and patented by Kikunae Ikeda.^[177]
• Umami — Umami as a separate taste was first identified in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University while researching the strong flavor in seaweed broth.^[178]
• Fortune cookie — Although popular in Western Chinese restaurants, fortune cookies did not originate in China and are in fact rare there. They most likely originated from cookies made by Japanese immigrants to the United States in the late 19th or early 20th century. The Japanese version had a fortune, but not lucky numbers, and was commonly eaten with tea.^[179]

Philosophy

See also: Japanese philosophy

Tajōmaru and the samurai's wife, two unreliable narrators in Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950), which the Rashomon effect is named after.

• Kokugaku
• Lean manufacturing — A generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) (hence the term Toyotism is also prevalent) and identified as "Lean" only in the 1990s.^[180][181]
• Post-truth politics — Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) is cited as an early work that anticipated contemporary post-truth politics.^[182]
• Psychological novel — The Tale of Genji (11th century) is considered to be the first psychological novel.^[114]
• Rashomon effect — The concept originates from Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's novel In a Grove (1922),^[183] which was adapted into Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon (1950).^[184]
• Uncanny valley — Masahiro Mori first introduced the concept in his 1970 essay The uncanny valley phenomenon (不気味の谷現象, Bukimi no tani genshō).^[185]

Games

A modern pachinko machine

• Pachinko — Pachinko machines were first built during the 1920s as a children's toy called the "Corinth game" (コリントゲーム, korinto gēmu).^[186]
• Transforming mecha — Pioneered by Shōji Kawamori with the Diaclone toy line in 1980.^[187][188]

Board games

See also: List of traditional Japanese games

Renju is played on a 15×15 grid Go board.

• Go (modern rules) — Though the game originated in China, free opening of the game as it is played globally began in the 16th century Japan.
• Gomoku — Historical records indicate the origins of gomoku can be traced back to the mid-1700s during the Edo period. By the late Edo period, around 1850, books had been published on gomoku.^[189]
• Renju — A professional variant of gomoku. It was named renju by journalist Ruikou Kuroiwa in 1899.^[190]

Electro-mechanical

See also: Electro-mechanical game

A child playing with a classic Japanese Mogura Taiji (Whac‑A‑Mole) machine.

• Audio-visual novelty game — EM genre originating from Japan,^[191] starting with Periscope (1965).^[191][192] Special effects resembled later arcade video games.^[193][194]
  • Electronic sound — Periscope (1965) by Namco and Sega introduced electronic sound.^{[192][195][196]} Sega's Duck Hunt (1968) used solid-state electronic sound.^[197]
  • Special effects — Periscope (1965) introduced special effects.^[192]
  • Image projection — EM games with rear image projection on a screen date back to 1968 with Sega's Duck Hunt^[197][198] and Kasco's Indy 500.^[199][200]
  • Pseudo-3D — Pseudo-3D graphics projected on a screen date back to the late 1960s with Kasco's Indy 500 (1968)^{[199][200][201]} and Sega's EM arcade games.^[199]
  • 4D effect — Taito's EM arcade game Cycle Rider (1970) was the first game with 4D effects in the form of wind blowing at the player.^[202]
• Audio streaming — Sega's MotoPolo (1968) introduced an 8-track player unit that plays sounds from endless tape cartridge through a speaker.^[203][195]
  • Game music — Sega introduced electronic game music with their EM arcade game Jumbo (1969), which used an 8-track player to playback electronic circus music.^[204][205]
  • Tape loop — Sega introduced tape music loops to arcades with EM games such as Sand Buggy (1972).^[206]
• Bonus points — The concept dates back to Sega's electro-mechanical arcade light gun shooter Duck Hunt (1968). The game awarded the player a higher score for a head shot, earning 15 points, whereas a standard body shot earned 10 points.^[197]
• Car combat — The concept of ramming cars dates back to Sega's Stunt Car (1970) and Dodgem Crazy (1972). They reversed racing game conventions by making vehicle collisions the objective of the gameplay.^[207]
  • Block breaker — In Sega's Stunt Car (1970), the car is used as a kicker to launch balls into holes on the playfield, anticipating the gameplay of Breakout (1976).^[194]
• Cockpit arcade cabinet — In 1970, Kasco's Indy 500 (F-type) introduced a sit-down cockpit arcade cabinet.^[208]
• Cooperative gameplay (co-op) — Periscope (1965) by Namco and Sega was both a single-player game and a three-player co-op game.^[209][210]
  • 3-player (3P) — Periscope (1965) was both a single-player game and a three-player game.^[209]
• First-person light gun shooter — Sega's Duck Hunt (1968) was the first shooter game to project first-person graphics on a screen.^[197][198]
  • Headshot — The concept dates back to Sega's Duck Hunt (1968). The game awarded the player a higher score for a head shot, earning 15 points, whereas a standard body shot earned 10 points.^[197]
  • First-person shooter (FPS) — Sega's Jet Rocket (1970) was the earliest FPS, with free-roaming first-person movement.^[211][212] Its FPS gameplay was updated by Sega's Heli‑Shooter (1977) using microprocessor technology.^[213]

• First-person racing game — Kasco's arcade racer Indy 500 (1968) introduced pseudo-3D graphics projected using mirrors to give a first-person perspective on a screen.^[199][200]
• Flight simulator game — Sega's Jet Rocket (1970), a first-person combat flight simulator, was the first flight simulator game.^{[211][214][212]}
• Full-motion video (FMV) — Nintendo's EM arcade game Wild Gunman (1974), published by Sega in North America, was the first FMV game.^[215]
  • Adult game — The first erotic game was Nintendo's EM arcade game Fascination (1974).^[216]
  • Voice acting — Dates back to Nintendo's Wild Gunman (1974), where the FMV intro scene has a voiced narrator giving gameplay instructions.^[215]
• Family fun center — Modern family fun centers appeared in Japan during the late 1960s, notably arcades operated by Sega.^[217]
• Handheld electronic game — Waco's Electronic Tic-Tac-Toe (1972) s commonly cited as the first commercial handheld electronic game.^{[218][219][220]}
• Head-to-head shooting — Sega's Gun Fight (1969) introduced competitive head-to-head shooting between two players, inspiring several early shooter video games.^[221]

• Holography — In 1975, Taito announced the first holographic arcade gun game at the 1975 AMOA show.^[222] The same year, Kasco released Gun Smoke, an arcade gun game using rotating cylindrical hologram technology.^[223]
• Interactive movie game — Wild Gunman (1974) was the first interactive movie game.^[224]
  • Interactive storytelling — Wild Gunman (1974) was the first game with interactive storytelling. Each scenario presents alternate FMV scenes depending on user action.^[224][215]
• Medal game — Medal games began in Japan during the early 1970s and started becoming popular with Sega's Harness Racing (1974), Nintendo's EVR Race (1975) and Aruze's The Derby Vφ (1975).^[225]
• Ninja game — The earliest ninja game was Kasco's EM arcade shooter game Ninja Gun (1977).^{[226][227][228]}
• Open world — Sega's Jet Rocket (1970) is considered the first open world game.^{[214][212][211]} Its open world gameplay was updated by Sega's Heli‑Shooter (1977) using microprocessor technology.^[213]
• Quick time event (QTE) — Nintendo's electro-mechanical arcade game Wild Gunman (1974) featured the earliest quick time events (QTE).^[229]
• Rhythm game — In the early 1970s, Kasco created a rhythm-based EM arcade game, designed by Kenzou Furukawa, whose idea was "a game where you'd lift girls skirts in time to some rhythm" inspired by the 1969 Oh! Mouretsu commercials.^[230]
• Submarine simulator — Periscope (1965), by Namco and Sega, used lights and plastic waves to simulate sinking ships from a submarine.^[231]
• Whac-A-Mole — Invented in 1975 by Kazuo Yamada of TOGO, based on the designer's 1974 pencil sketches.^[232] TOGO released it as Mogura Taiji to Japanese arcades in 1975.^[225]

Game consoles

See also: Video game console and Video games in Japan

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

• 24-bit game console — SNK's Neo Geo (1990) was the first video game console with a 24-bit graphics processor.^[233]
  • 32-bit console — Fujitsu's FM Towns Marty (1993) was the console with a 32-bit central processing unit (CPU).^[234]
  • 64-bit console — The Nintendo 64 (1996) was the first console with a 64-bit CPU.^[235]
  • 128-bit console — Sega's Dreamcast (1998) was the first console with a 128-bit graphics floating-point unit (FPU).^[236]
  • 256-bit console — Sony's PlayStation 3 (2006) was the first console with a 256-bit GPU.^[80]
• 8-bit handheld console — Nintendo's Game Boy (1989) was the first handheld game console with an 8-bit CPU.^[237]
  • 16-bit handheld console — Neo Geo Pocket Color (1998) was the first handheld console with a 16-bit CPU.^[238]
  • 32-bit handheld console — Nintendo's Game Boy Advance (2001) was the first handheld console with a 32-bit CPU.^[239]
  • 64-bit handheld console — Sony's PlayStation Portable (2004) was the first handheld console with a 64-bit CPU.^[240]
  • 128-bit handheld console — Sony's PlayStation Vita (2011) was the first handheld console with a 128-bit SIMD.^[241]
• 3D stereoscopic handheld — Bandai's Terror House (1982) produced an early 3D-like effect. Tomy's Tomytronic 3D (1983) featured an early stereoscopic 3D display.^[242]
  • Solar-powered video game — In 1982, the Bandai LCD Solarpower was the first solar‑powered video game device.^[242]
  • Autostereoscopic game console — The Nintendo 3DS (2011) was the first console with an autostereoscopic 3D display, using a parallax barrier.^[243]
• Console geometry processor — The Sega Saturn (1994) was the first console with a 3D geometry processor.^[244]
  • Game console with T&L GPU — The Nintendo 64 (1996) was the first console with a graphics processing unit (GPU) capable of transform, clipping, and lighting (T&L).^[245]
  • Game console with FPU and Z-buffer — The Nintendo 64 (1996) was the first console with a floating-point unit (FPU) and Z‑buffering hardware.^[246]
• Console with optical disk drive — The CD-ROM² add-on for NEC's PC Engine, released in November 1988, was the first game console to use CD-ROM as storage media.^[247][248]
• Dual-port VRAM — First console to use dual-port VRAM was the Sega Mega Drive, released in 1988.^[249]
  • Synchronous Graphics RAM (SGRAM) — The earliest commercial use of SGRAM was the NEC μPD481850 memory chip in the Sony PlayStation, included in models from December 1995 onwards.^[250][251]
  • Three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) — The earliest commercial use of a 3D IC was Toshiba's eDRAM memory chip in the PlayStation Portable (2004).^[252]
• Hybrid console — The Sega Nomad (1995) was the first hybrid console.^[253]
• Multi-screen display — First appeared with Nintendo's Game & Watch series.^[242] The first game in the Multi-Screen series was Oil Panic (1982).^[254]
• Memory card — Earliest memory cards introduced in 1985, the Sega Card for the SG-1000 and Master System consoles.^[255] The Sega Card was developed as a cheaper alternative to game cartridges.^[255]
  • Memory card save — Neo Geo AES (1990) was the first console able to use a memory card for saved game data. It was compatible with Neo Geo MVS arcade cabinets, allowing migration of saves between home and arcade systems.^[256][257]
• Nintendo — Gunpei Yokoi was the creator of the Game Boy and Virtual Boy and worked on Famicom (NES), the Metroid series, Game Boy Pocket and did extensive work on the system we know today as the Nintendo Entertainment System (called the Famicom in Japan).^[258]
  • Multi-color hardware sprite — The Famicom (1983) was the first console featuring a graphics chip (by Ricoh) with hardware support for multi-colored sprites.^[259]
• Online console multiplayer — In 1987, Nintendo launched the Family Computer Network System for the Famicom in Japan. Online games developed for the system include a graphical, competitive online multiplayer version of Go.^[260]
  • Downloadable content (DLC) — The Sega Meganet service launched for the Japanese Mega Drive in 1990. Phantasy Star II (1989) featured eight Phantasy Star II Adventures for download on Meganet. This was the earliest example of DLC.^[261][262]
• PlayStation — The first Sony PlayStation was invented by Ken Kutaragi. Research and development for the PlayStation began in 1990, headed by Kutaragi, a Sony engineer.^[263]
• Touchscreen handheld — In the early 1990s, Sega were planning to release a Game Gear successor with a touchscreen interface. However, touchscreen technology was expensive, so they instead released the Sega Nomad in 1995.^[259]
• Vertical scrolling game console — The first console with vertical scrolling was Nintendo's dedicated console Color TV-Game Racing 112 (1978), a clone of Taito's arcade video game Speed Race (1974).^[264]
  • Scrolling tiled background — The Famicom (1983) was the first console featuring a graphics chip with hardware support for scrolling tiled backgrounds.^[259][265]
• Virtual reality headset (VR) — The Sega VR headset was an early unreleased VR device with built-in motion tracking, first announced in 1991. Its sensors tracked the player's movement and head position.^[266]

Game controllers

See also: Game controller

Nintendo 64 controller, debuted in 1995 and released in 1996, popularized analog thumbstick controls.

• Analog thumbstick — Introduced by Dempa's XE-1 AP controller (1989) for the Sega Mega Drive console and Japanese computers.^[267]
  • Digital-analog thumbstick — Introduced with the Nintendo 64 controller, debuted in 1995 and released in 1996.^[268][269] Its thumbstick was a digital-analog hybrid.^[270]

Donkey Kong (1982), showing its revolutionary D-pad design.

• D-pad — In 1982, Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi elaborated on the idea of a circular pad, shrinking it and altering the points into the familiar modern "cross" design for control of on-screen characters in their Donkey Kong handheld game. It came to be known as the "D-pad".^[271] The design proved to be popular for subsequent Game & Watch titles. This particular design was patented. In 1984, the Japanese company Epoch created a handheld game system called the Epoch Game Pocket Computer. It featured a D-pad, but it was not popular for its time and soon faded. Initially intended to be a compact controller for the Game & Watch handheld games alongside the prior non-connected style pad, Nintendo realized that Gunpei's design would also be appropriate for regular consoles, and Nintendo made the D-pad the standard directional control for the hugely successful Nintendo Entertainment System under the name "+Control Pad".
• Dance pad — The earliest dance pad was Bandai's Power Pad, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987.^[272]
• Directional buttons — Sega's arcade electro-mechanical game Missile (1969) had two directional buttons are used to move a motorized tank.^[273]

Controller of the PlayStation 2, the best-selling video game console of all time.

• Dual control — Sega's EM game Missile (969 ) had dual-control scheme, with two directional buttons moving a tank and a joystick used to shoot and steer the missile.^[273]
  • Twin-stick shooter — Introduced by Taito's Western Gun (1975), which used one joystick for movement and a second for firing.^[274][275]
  • Dual analog control — Sony's Dual Analog and DualShock controllers in 1997 were the first to feature two analog sticks.^[276]
• Gamepad — Nintendo developed the standard gamepad design, with a D-pad, for the Donkey Kong Game & Watch handheld (1982) and the NES controller (1983).^[277][278]
  • Shoulder button — Introduced by Dempa's XE-1 AP controller (1989) for the Sega Mega Drive and Japanese computers.^[267] Popularized by SNES controller (1990).^[279]
• Joystick — Sega's EM arcade game MotoPolo, released in early 1968, introduced joystick controllers, used to move miniature motorbikes in any direction on the table.^[195]
  • Analog joystick — Introduced by Sega's MotoPolo (1968). Joysticks used analog magnetic lever technology to move miniature motorbikes in any direction.^[195]
  • Joystick with fire button — First game to use a joystick with fire button was Sega's Missile (1969), which used a joystick to shoot and steer the missile.^[273]
  • Analog flight stick — Sega's Space Harrier (1985) introduced an analog flight stick for movement. It could register movement in any direction as well as measure the degree of push.^[280]
  • Rotary joystick — Joystick–knob hybrid, where the joystick can be moved in various directions and/or rotated like a knob, like for 8‑direction movement and 360-degree aiming.^[281][282] Introduced by SNK's TNK III (1985) and Ikari Warriors (1986).^[281]
• Light gun toy — Nintendo introduced a light gun toy to the home market with the Kōsenjū SP (Beam Gun) in 1970. The gun was developed by Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi with Sharp's Masayuki Uemura.^[283][284]
  • Solar-powered game — Nintendo's Kōsenjū SP (Beam Gun) introduced solar cell technology from Sharp.^[283][284]
  • Video game light gun — The first video game light gun, released for the Magnavox Odyssey console in 1972, was designed and manufactured by Nintendo, based on their earlier Kōsenjū SP light gun.^{[284][285][286]}
• Motion controller — Sega's arcade game Heavyweight Champ (1985) featured the first motion-based controllers.^[287]
  • Motion-sensing controller — Invented by Nintendo for the Wii, the Wii Remote is the first controller with motion-sensing capability. It was a candidate for Time's Best Invention of 2006.^[288]
• Motion simulator — The first hydraulic motion simulator arcade cabinets were developed by Sega for the arcade games Space Tactics (1981), Hang-On (1985) and Space Harrier (1985).^[289][290]
  • 360-degree gyroscopic motion simulator — Sega's R360 cabinet, debuted with the arcade game G-LOC: Air Battle (1990), introduced the use of gyroscope technology for the first 360-degree motion simulator experience.^[291]
• Periscope — Periscope (1965), an EM arcade game by Namco^[292] and Sega,^[293] introduced a new controller in the form of a periscope viewer. Its periscope viewer arcade cabinet design was later adopted by several arcade video games.^[294]
• Positional gun — A positional gun is essentially an analog joystick that records the position of the gun to determine the player's aim on the screen.^[295][296] Earliest examples of a positional gun were Sega's Sea Devil (1972)^[297] and Taito's Attack (1976).^[298]
• Racing wheel with accelerator pedal — Kasco's EM game Indy 500 (1968) featured a steering wheel along with an accelerator pedal.^[299][300]
  • Handheld racing wheel — Tomy's Demon Driver (1978) and Turnin’ Turbo Dashboard (1983) were the first handheld games with racing wheels.^[242]
• Throttle — Sega's electro-mechanical arcade game Heli-Shooter (1977) involves the player piloting a helicopter using a throttle joystick to accelerate and decelerate.^[301][302]
  • Throttle lever — Sega's arcade video game After Burner II (1987), in addition to using an analog joystick, introduced a separate throttle lever to accelerate and decelerate the speed.^[303]
• Touch control — In 1985, the Sega Graphic Board for the SG-1000 and SC-3000 was a touch tablet with stylus pen, used for the drawing game Terebi Oekaki.^[304] In 1986, the Sega AI Computer had a touchpad, mainly used for educational games.^{[305][306][307]}
• Trackball control — The earliest use of trackball controls in a video game was Sega's arcade football/soccer game World Cup, released in March 1978.^{[308][309][310]}

Sports

See also: Sports in Japan

Nissan Silvia (S14) performing a drift (2014)

• Air hockey — Sega's electro-mechanical (EM) arcade game MotoPolo (1968) anticipated air hockey gameplay.^[203]
  • Motorbike electronic sports game — Sega's MotoPolo (1968) was the first electronic sports game featuring motorbikes.^[311]
  • Formula One electronic game — Namco's EM arcade games Formula-X (1973) and F-1 (1976) were the first Formula One electronic games.^[312]
  • Bowlingo — Capcom's Bowlingo (1990) was a coin-operated, electro-mechanical, automated mini ten-pin bowling installation, smaller than a standard bowling alley.^[313]
• Animated sports — Animal Olympic Games, a 1928 animated short film directed by Yasuji Murata, was the first sports anime.^[314]
  • Sports comic — The judo manga series Igaguri-kun [jp] by Eiichi Fukui, first published in the manga magazine Bōken'ō in 1952, was the first sports manga series.^[315]
• Association football video game — Tomohiro Nishikado's arcade video game Soccer (1973) was the first association football (soccer) sports video game.^[316]
  • Basketball video game — Tomohiro Nishikado's arcade title TV Basketball (1974) was the first basketball video game.^[317]
  • Esports — Has arcade roots dating back to 1974, with Sega's All Japan TV Game Championships, a nationwide tournament in Japan.^{[318][319][320]}
  • Combat sports video game — Sega's arcade game Heavyweight Champ (1976), was the first boxing video game and the first combat sports video game. ^[212][94]
  • Rugby video game — Data East's Scrum Try (1984) for arcade DECO Cassette System was the first rugby video game.^[321]
  • 3D sports video game — ASCII's Amnork (1986) for the for the FM-77 AV computer was the first sports video game with real-time 3D polygon graphics.^[322]
• Drifting — Kunimitsu Takahashi created drifting techniques in the 1970s.^[323]
  • Drifting competition — In 1988, Keiichi Tsuchiya alongside Option magazine founder and chief editor Daijiro Inada organised the first contest specifically for sliding a car sideways. In 1996, Option organized the first contest outside Japan^[324] which began to spread to other countries.
• Ekiden (road relay)
• Gateball
• Instant replay — From 1957, NHK began instant replay broadcasts of sumo wrestling events. Due to matches being short, broadcasters would quickly rewind the video tape after a match to replay the contest.^[325]
  • HDTV coverage — During the 1984 Summer Olympics, NHK shot some of the events for HDTV.^[326]
  • 3D TV coverage — In the 1998 Nagano Olympics, some sporting events were filmed for 3D HDTV.^[326]
  • VOD coverage — The 1998 Nagano Olympics included the first video-on-demand (VOD) sports coverage.^[326]
• Keirin — Started as a gambling sport in 1948 and became an Olympic sport in 2000.

Video games

See also: Video games in Japan and History of Eastern role-playing video games

Playing Dance Dance Revolution, one of the most successful rhythm games.

• 16-bit video game — Universal's arcade video game Get A Way (1978) was the first game with a 16-bit CPU.^[327][328]
  • 32-bit video game — The Sega X Board arcade system, which debuted with After Burner (1987), featured the first 32-bit graphics processing unit (GPU).^[80]
  • 64-bit video game — The Sega Model 1 arcade system, which debuted with Virtua Racing (1992), featured the first 64-bit GPU.^[80]
  • 128-bit arcade system — The Sega NAOMI, launched in 1998, was the first arcade system with a 128-bit floating-point unit (FPU).^[236]
  • 256-bit arcade system — The Sega Lindbergh, launched in 2005, was the first arcade system with a 256-bit GPU.^[80]

• 2D animated color character sprite — First appeared in Kasco's arcade game Playtron (1973).^[329]
  • Human sprite — Tomohiro Nishikado's arcade title TV Basketball (1974) was the first video game to represent player characters as human sprites.^[330]
  • Human combat — Tomohiro Nishikado's arcade title Western Gun (1975) was the first video game to depict human-to-human combat.^[331]
  • Multi-color sprite — Taito's arcade title Super Speed Race (1977) was the first video game with multi-color sprites.^[332]
  • Digitized sprite — Magical Company's 2D arcade fighting game Last Apostle Puppet Show (1988) was the first game to feature digitized sprites.^[333]
• 3D polygon graphics — Pre-rendered 3D graphics were introduced with arcade laserdisc game Interstellar,^[334][335] debuted by Funai at the AM Show in September 1983.^[336]
  • 3D pre-rendered graphics — Introduced by Funai's arcade game Interstellar (1983).^[334][335]
  • 3D real-time computer graphics — Technosoft's racing game Plazma Line (1984) was the first home computer game with real‑time 3D polygon graphics.^[337]
  • 3D polygon human character — First appeared in Arsys Software's Star Cruiser (1988).^[338]
  • 3D camera change button — Introduced in 1991 by M.N.M Software's Japan-exclusive Sharp X68000 games Magical Shot and Star Wars: Attack on the Death Star.^[339]
  • 3D adventure game — Synergy's Alice: An Interactive Museum (1991) was the first adventure game with pre-rendered 3D graphics.^[340] Riverhillsoft's Doctor Hauzer (1994) was the first adventure game with fully real-time 3D polygon graphics.^[73]
  • 3D character physics — A 3D character physics engine first appeared Sega AM2's Virtua Fighter (1993).^[341]
• 3D stereoscopic game — Sega's SubRoc-3D (1982) was the first 3D stereoscopic game.^[342][343]
  • Autostereoscopy — A prototype single-viewer 3D display, the Floating Image System, was presented by Sega AM3 in 1997.^[344]
• 6-player video game — Dates back to Taito's arcade racing game Dead Heat (1975).^[96]
• Action role-playing game (ARPG) — Established in 1980s Japan.^[345] Earliest ARPGs include Panorama Toh^[346][347] and Bokosuka Wars in 1983.^[348][349]
  • 3D role-playing game (RPG) — Arsys Software's Wibarm (1986) and Star Cruiser (1988) were the first role-playing video games to used 3D polygon graphics.^[350]
  • Activity-based progression — Nihon Falcom's Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II (1985) was the earliest role-playing video game where individual stats increase based on activity levels.^[351]
  • Morality meter — Xanadu (1985) had a Karma meter, which affects the temple's reaction.^[352][353] Hydlide II (1985) had an alignment morality meter, affected by killing evil/good monsters or humans, which affects townsfolk reactions.^[354]
  • Role-playing shooter (RPS) — Panorama Toh (1983) was the first action RPG with shooter elements.^[346] Wibarm (1986) combined run-and-gun gameplay with RPG elements.^[355]
  • Soulslike — A subgenre of action role-playing and action-adventure games that originate from FromSoftware's Demon's Souls in 2009.^[356][357]
• Adult video game — The first erotic video game was Hudson Soft's Yakyūken (1981) for the Sharp MZ-80K computer.^[216]
• Arcade conversion — Kasco's Playtron (1973) had an early prototype arcade system board that supported interchangeable games.^[329]
• Beat 'em up — In 1984, Hong Kong cinema-inspired Kung-Fu Master laid the foundations for scrolling beat 'em ups with its simple gameplay and multiple enemies.^[358][359] Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun, released in 1986 in Japan, deviated from the martial arts themes of earlier games and introduced street brawling to the genre. Renegade (released the same year) added an underworld revenge plot that proved more popular with gamers than the principled combat sport of other games.^[360] Renegade set the standard for future beat 'em up games as it introduced the ability to move both horizontally and vertically.^[361]
  • Belt scrolling— Introduced by Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (1986).^[362][363]
• Bloom — The earliest real-time 3D polygon game to use the bloom effect was Squaresoft's The Bouncer (2000).^[364]
• Bonus stage — The first bonus stage in video game history is in Rally-X, released by Namco in 1980. This became a signature feature of other arcade games like Galaga in 1981.^[365][366]
• Boss battle in real-time — Sega's Samurai, released March 1980, had the player samurai fight a number of swordsmen before confronting a more powerful boss samurai.^[367]
  • Multiple bosses — SNK's Sasuke vs. Commander, released in October 1980,^[368] is the earliest game with multiple boss encounters.^[369]
  • Final boss — In Phoenix (1980), the player's ship must fight a giant mothership in the final level.^[370]
  • Sub-boss — In Irem's Kung-Fu Master (1984), end-of-level sub-bosses are followed by the final boss on the top level.^[371]
  • Boss rush — Sega's arcade game Fantasy Zone (1986) popularized the concept of a boss rush, a stage where players face multiple previous bosses again in succession.^[372]
• Branching storylines — The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983) introduced non-linear branching storylines, branching out into different scenarios in response to player actions.^[373]
  • Multiple endings — The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983) introduced alternate endings, considered "way ahead of its time".^[374] The earliest action games to feature multiple endings were the 1986 games Metroid^[375] and Penguin Adventure.^[376]

• Character action game — Genre was established by Pac-Man (1980).^{[377][378][379]}
• Cheat code — Dates back to the Konami Code, created in 1986 by Kazuhisa Hashimoto as he worked on porting the 1985 arcade game Gradius for use on the Nintendo Entertainment System.^[380]
• Combo — Data East's arcade DECO Cassette System game Flash Boy (1981), a scrolling action game, had the earliest combo mechanic. When the player punches an enemy and it explodes, debris can destroy other enemies.^[381]
  • Combo system — The first fighting game with a combo system was Culture Brain's Shanghai Kid (1985), with "rush" attacks similar to custom combos in Street Fighter Alpha 2 (1996).^[382]
  • Super combo — Introduced by SNK's Art of Fighting (1992).^[383]
• Command menu — Yuji Horii's The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance [ja] (1984) introduced a command menu system.^[384]
  • Branching menu — The 1985 NES port of The Portopia Serial Murder Case has branching menu selections.^[385][374]
• Color vector graphics — The Sega G80 arcade system, launched in 1981, possessed the world's first color vector X-Y video system.^[386]
• Co-op action video game — In 1975, Sega released the early co-op light gun shooter video games Balloon Gun^[387] and Bullet Mark.^[388]
• Cover system — In Taito's Gun Fight (1975),^[389] the player characters could take cover behind destructible objects.^[390]
• Cutscene — Taito's Space Invaders Part II (1979) introduced cutscenes as brief comical intermissions between levels.^[391][392]
  • Narrative cutscene — Dates back to Nintendo's Sheriff (1979).^[393]
• Damsel in distress — Dates back to Nintendo's Sheriff (1979).^[394]
• Destructible environment — Destructible objects introduced by Taito's Gun Fight (1975).^[395] Fully destructible environment introduced by Namco's Dig Dug (1982).^[396]
• Dialogue tree — Introduced by The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983), with conversations between the player and NPCs,^[373][397] along with branching dialogue.^[385][374] The dialogue choices are considered "way ahead of its time".^[374]
• Difficulty level — Dates back to Tomohiro Nishikado's Speed Race (1974).^[398]
  • Difficulty curve — The concept was accidentally invented by Tomohiro Nishikado when he created Space Invaders (1978).^[399]

• Drifting mechanic — Introduced by Sega's Out Run (1986). The mechanic incorporates AI assistance and details such as, if the car's tires grip the road surface too closely, the car's handling becomes too twitchy.^[400]
• Farm life sim — The genre began with the SNES game Harvest Moon (1996).^[401]
• Fighting game — Sega's black and white boxing game Heavyweight Champ was released in 1976 as the first video game to feature fist fighting.^[402] However, Data East's Karate Champ from 1984 is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre, and went on to influence Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu from 1985.^[403] Yie Ar Kung Fu expanded on Karate Champ by pitting the player against a variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting style.^[403][404] Capcom's Street Fighter (1987) introduced the use of special moves that could only be discovered by experimenting with the game controls. Street Fighter II (1991) established the conventions of the fighting game genre and, whereas previous games allowed players to combat computer-controlled fighters, Street Fighter II allowed players to play against each other.^[405]
  • Special move — Introduced by Technōs Japan's Karate Champ (1984).^[383]
  • 3D fighting game — The first 3D polygon fighting game was Sega AM2's Virtua Fighter (1993).^[341]
  • Platform fighter — Namco's The Outfoxies originated the concept of platform fighters. The subgenre would be most defined by the release of Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. in 1999, which defined the subgenre's mechanics.^[406]
• Flight simulator video game — Taito's arcade video game Interceptor (1975), designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, was a crude early first-person combat flight simulator video game.^[407]
• First-person shooter video game (FPS) — Taito's arcade video game Interceptor (1975), designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, is considered an early first-person shooter (FPS).^[408]
  • 3D first-person shooter (3D FPS) — Earliest FPS to use 3D polygons was ASCII's Amnork (1986) for the FM‑77 AV computer.^[409]
  • Strafing — Star Cruiser (1988) was an early first-person shooter with strafing controls, considered ahead of its time.^[410] Taito's Gun Buster (1992) was an early arcade first-person shooter with strafing controls, considered revolutionary for its time.^[411]
• Force feedback — In 1976, Sega's motorbike game Moto-Cross, also known as Fonz, was the first game to use haptic feedback, causing the handlebars to vibrate during a collision with another vehicle.^[412]
• FMV video game — The first video game with full-motion video (FMV) was Nintendo's arcade game EVR Race (1975), which played anime scenes from an Electronic Video Recording (EVR) video tape on a CRT display.^[413]
  • FMV cutscene — Data East's laserdisc video game Bega's Battle (1983) introduced animated FMV cutscenes with voice acting to develop a story between the game's shooting stages.^[414]
• Gouraud shading — Namco's SimDrive (SimRoad) for the Namco System 22,^[415][416] with a limited release in 1992,^[417] introduced Gouraud shading.^[418]
  • Phong shading — The Sega Hikaru arcade system introduced Phong shading, with the system's debut title Brave Firefighters (1999). Space Channel 5 (1999) for the Sega Dreamcast was the first home console game with limited Phong shading.^[419]
• Hack and slash — In Sega's action game Samurai (1980), the player samurai swordsman must fight a number of other swordsmen.^[367]
  • Side-scrolling hack and slash — The earliest side‑scrolling hack‑and‑slash game was Taito's arcade game The Legend of Kage (1985).^[420][421]
  • 3D hack and slash (character action) — A subgenre of 3D, third-person, weapon-based, melee action games. Defined by Hideki Kamiya, creator of Devil May Cry and Bayonetta,^[422] in turn influenced by Onimusha (2001).^[423]
• Health meter — Data East's Flash Boy (1981) for the DECO Cassette System introduced an energy bar.^[424]
  • Health meter regeneration — In Punch-Out (developed 1983), a stamina meter replenishes when the player strikes the opponent.^[425] In Hydlide (1984), the health meter recovers when the character does not move.^[426][427]
• High score — Defined by Taito's Space Invaders (1978), with high scores determined by playing to stay alive for as long as possible, as scores keep rising.^[428]
• Holographic video game — Sega released the first holographic video games for arcades, Time Traveler (1991) and Holosseum (1992).^[223] The holographic mirror-like optical device used by the games was invented by Japanese company Dentsu.^[429]
• Horror game — Space Invaders (1978) was a precursor to horror games, as it involved a survival scenario which created a sense of panic in players upon release.^{[430][431][432]}
  • Survival horror — The earliest survival horror game was Nostromo, developed by Akira Takiguchi (a Tokyo University student and Taito contractor) for the PET 2001 and published by ASCII for the PC-6001 in 1981.^[433] The term survival horror was coined by Capcom's Resident Evil (1996), which defined the genre.^[434][435] It was inspired by Capcom's earlier horror game Sweet Home (1989).^[436]
  • 3D horror game — Doctor Hauzer (1994) was the first horror game with fully real-time 3D polygon graphics.^[73]
  • Fast zombie — Originates from 1990s Japanese horror games. Resident Evil (1996) featured zombie dogs that run towards the player. The House of the Dead (1996) introduced running human zombies who run towards the player, jump and swim.^[437]
  • Zombie dog — Resident Evil (1996) was the first video game with zombie dogs, popularizing the concept in mass media.^[437]
  • Zombie virus — Resident Evil (1996) gave realistic scientific explanations for zombie origins, such as biological weaponry, genetic manipulation, and parasitic symbiosis. This became the standard approach for explaining zombie origins.^[438]
  • Psychological horror game — Silent Hill (1999) was praised for moving away survival horror games from B movie horror elements to the psychological style seen in art house or Japanese horror films,^[439] due to the game's emphasis on a disturbing atmosphere rather than visceral horror.^[440] The original Silent Hill is considered one of the scariest games of all time,^[441] and the strong narrative from Silent Hill 2 in 2001 has made the series one of the most influential in the genre.^[442] Fatal Frame from 2001 was a unique entry into the genre, as the player explores a mansion and takes photographs of ghosts in order to defeat them.^[443][444]
• Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) — Koei's The Dragon and Princess (1982), released for the PC-88 and FM-7 computers, was the first role-playing video game (RPG) made in Japan.^[445][446]
  • Active Time Battle (ATB) — Hiroyuki Ito introduced the "Active Time Battle" system in Final Fantasy IV (1991),^[447] where the time-keeping system does not stop.^[448] Square Co., Ltd. filed a United States patent application for the ATB system on March 16, 1992, under the title "Video game apparatus, method and device for controlling same" and was awarded the patent on February 21, 1995. On the battle screen, each character has an ATB meter that gradually fills, and the player is allowed to issue a command to that character once the meter is full.^[449] The fact that enemies can attack or be attacked at any time is credited with injecting urgency and excitement into the combat system.^[448]
  • Critical hit — The concept of critical hits was introduced to video games with the 1986 JRPG title Dragon Quest.^[450]
  • Monster-taming game — In Cosmic Soldier (1985), enemies can be recruited into the player's party.^[451] The genre's origins lie in the Megami Tensei series, which began with Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (1987).^[452][453]
  • Pausable real-time — Earliest examples of pausable real-time combat include Knights of Xentar (1991)^[454][455] and Secret of Mana (1993).^[456]
  • Tactical RPG (TRPG) — Koei's The Dragon and Princess (1982) is a precursor to the tactical RPG genre, with a tactical turn‑based battle system.^[445][446] Bokosuka Wars (1983) laid the foundations for the tactical RPG genre.^[457]
• Kart racing game — Power Drift featured go-kart racing in 1988,^[458] but Super Mario Kart (1992) is cited to have popularized the kart racing genre, being the first kart racing game to implement combat elements within races.^[459]
• Optical disc video game — The first video game to use optical disc technology was Sega's arcade game Astron Belt, which debuted in 1982.^[460]
  • Laserdisc video game — The first laserdisc video game was Sega's Astron Belt, which featured full-motion video (FMV) footage superimposed with 2D sprites.^[461][462] It debuted at the September 1982 AM Show.^[460]
  • CD-ROM video game — The first CD games were Fighting Street and No-Ri-Ko, released for the PC Engine CD-ROM² in 1988.^[463] In 1987, there were CD-ROM² demos of Odori Koen Satsujin Jiken, CD Zoo, and Tengai Makyō: Ziria.^[463]
  • CD-ROM RPG — Tengai Makyō: Ziria (Far East of Eden: Ziria) for the PC Engine CD-ROM² was the first RPG released on CD-ROM.^[464] After a mockup demo was shown in 1987,^[463] the complete game was released in June 1989.^[465]
• Last man standing — The earliest last-man-standing video game with a shrinking play zone was Hudson Soft's 1983 action game Bomberman.^[466]
  • Battle royale game (BR) — Bomberman (1990) is considered the first battle royale (BR) game.^[466] The film Battle Royale (2000) set out the genre rules.^[467]
• Levels — Space Invaders (1978) introduced the "concept of going round after round."^[468] Multiple distinct levels^[469] date back to Heiankyo Alien (1979).^[470]
• Lives — Taito's classic arcade video game Space Invaders (1978) is credited with introducing multiple lives to video games.^[471]
• Maze chase — Heiankyo Alien (1979) was an early maze chase game predating Namco's Pac-Man (1980), which established the maze chase genre and spawning many imitations.^[472]
• Microtransaction — Invented by Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone (1990). It has shops where players can insert coins into the arcade machine to purchase upgrades, power-ups, health, weapons, special moves and characters.^[473]
• Mini-map — The first video game with a radar mini-map was Namco's arcade game Rally-X (1980).^[474]
• Motion capture — In Magical Company's arcade fighting game Last Apostle Puppet Show (1988), an early form of motion capture was used to animate the 2D digitized sprites.^[333]
  • 3D motion capture — The first 3D game to use motion capture for animating the 3D character models was the Sega Model 1 arcade game Virtua Fighter (1993).^[475][476]
  • Passive optical motion capture — Namco's arcade fighting game Soul Edge (1995) was the first video game to use passive optical motion-capture technology.^[477]
• Multi-directional shooter — Taito's Western Gun (1975) laid the foundations for the multi-directional shooter genre.^[478]
• Ninja video game — Emerged in the early 1980s,^[479] the earliest being SNK's arcade shooter Sasuke vs. Commander (1980).^[480]
• Online graphical multiplayer — LINKS, a Japanese online network for the MSX launched in 1986, featured early graphical online multiplayer games: T&E Soft's Daiva Dr. Amandora and Super Laydock, Telenet's Girly Block, and Bothtec's Dires.^[481]
• Open world video game — The earliest open world video games include Tomohiro Nishikado's Interceptor (1975),^[95] Route-16 (1981),^[482] 005 (1981),^[211] Nihon Falcom's Panorama Toh (1983),^[346] and The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983).^[374]
  • Overworld — The arcade game Route-16 (1981) by Sun Electronics was the earliest game with an overworld. Exiting a maze takes the player to a large overworld map, from where they could enter various buildings.^[483]
  • Hub world — Sega's 1981 arcade game 005 was the first game with a hub world.^[211]
  • Day-night cycle — Nihon Falcom's Panorama Toh (1983) introduced an open world with day-night cycles.^[346]
• Platformer — Space Panic, a 1980 arcade release, is sometimes credited as the first platform game.^[484] It was clearly an influence on the genre, with gameplay centered on climbing ladders between different floors, a common element in many early platform games. Donkey Kong, an arcade game created by Nintendo, released in July 1981, was the first game that allowed players to jump over obstacles and across gaps, making it the first true platformer.^[485]
  • Metroidvania — Spawned by Metroid and Castlevania, with template based on Metroid (1986), Castlevania II (1987), Super Metroid (1994) and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997).^[486] Both were predated by Brain Breaker (1985).^{[487][488][489]}
  • Scrolling platformer — The first platform game to use scrolling graphics was Jump Bug (1981), a simple platform-shooter developed by Alpha Denshi.^[490] In August 1982, Taito released Jungle King,^[491] which featured scrolling jump and run sequences that had players hopping over obstacles. Namco took the scrolling platformer a step further with the 1984 release Pac-Land. Pac-Land came after the genre had a few years to develop, and was an evolution of earlier platform games, aspiring to be more than a simple game of hurdle jumping, like some of its predecessors.^[492] It closely resembled later scrolling platformers like Wonder Boy and Super Mario Bros. and was probably a direct influence on them. It also had multi-layered parallax scrolling.^[493][494]
• Point-and-click — Legends of Star Arthur: Planet Mephius, released by T&E Soft in July 1983, introduced a point-and-click interface, utilizing a cursor to interact with objects.^[495]
• Postmodern video game — Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) is considered the first postmodern video game.^[496]
• Power-up — Pac-Man from 1980 is credited as the first video game to feature a power-up mechanic,^[497] though at the time they were called "power capsules" by the manufacturers.^[498]

Fonz arcade cabinet (1976)

• Pseudo-3D sprite scaling — Introduced by Tomohiro Nishikado's arcade shooter Interceptor (1975).^[95]
  • Pseudo-3D background scaling — Dates back to Sega's arcade game Road Race (1976).^[499]
  • Pseudo-3D third-person perspective — Introduced by Sega's Road Race (1976).^[95]
  • Pseudo-3D background rotation — Dates back to Sega's arcade simulator After Burner (1987).^[500]
  • Sprite rotation — Dates back to Sega's After Burner (1987).^[303]
• Puzzle video game — Heiankyo Alien (1979) by University of Tokyo's Theoretical Science Group (TSG) was the first puzzle video game.^[501]
  • Puzzle-platformer — Universal's Space Panic (1980) was the earliest puzzle-platformer.^[502]
• QTE cutscene — Die Hard Arcade (1996) introduced QTEs in the modern form of cutscene interludes in an otherwise interactive game.^[503] "QTE" was coined by Shenmue (1999) director Yu Suzuki.^[503]
• Racing simulation — The earliest attempt at a racing simulation was Namco's Pole Position (1982).^[504][505]
• Rail shooter — Sega's Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (1982) was an early pseudo-3D rail shooter arcade game.^[506][507] Sega's Space Harrier (1985) was a seminal game that defined the genre.^[508]
• Real-time strategy (RTS) — Games considered early RTS include Bokosuka Wars (1983),^[509] Gain Ground ^[510][511] and Herzog (1988).^[512] Herzog Zwei (1989) is considered the first true RTS.^{[513][514][515]}
  • Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) — Herzog Zwei (1989) was a precursor to,^[516][517] or early example of, the MOBA genre.^[518][519]
• Rhythm video game — Dance Aerobics was released in 1987, and allowed players to create music by stepping on Nintendo's Power Pad peripheral. It has been called the first rhythm-action game in retrospect,^[520] although the 1996 title PaRappa the Rapper has also been deemed the first rhythm game, whose basic template forms the core of subsequent games in the genre. In 1997, Konami's Beatmania sparked an emergent market for rhythm games in Japan. The company's music division, Bemani, released a number of music games over the next several years.
• Save data — The first game to save the player's high score was Taito's Space Invaders (1978).^[521]
  • Cartridge save — Taito's Mirai Shinwa Jarvas (1986) introduced the concept of saved games stored in battery-backed random-access memory on the game cartridge.^[522]
  • FRAM save — Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) was commercialized in the mid-1990s. Its first high-profile commercial use was by game company Sega, who used FRAM chips to store saved games in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994) game cartridges.^[523]
• Shoot 'em up — Space Invaders is frequently cited as the "first" or "original" in the genre.^[524][525] Space Invaders pitted the player against multiple enemies descending from the top of the screen at a constantly increasing speed.^[525] As with subsequent shoot 'em ups of the time, the game was set in space as the available technology only permitted a black background. The game also introduced the idea of giving the player a number of "lives". Space Invaders was a massive commercial success, causing a coin shortage in Japan.^[526][527] The following year, Namco's Galaxian took the genre further with more complex enemy patterns and richer graphics.^[524][528]
  • Bullet hell — The bullet hell or danmaku genre began to emerge in the early 1990s as 2D developers needed to find a way to compete with 3D games which were becoming increasingly popular at the time. Toaplan's Batsugun (1993) is considered to be the ancestor of the modern bullet hell genre.^[529] The Touhou Project series is one of the most popular bullet hell franchises.
• Speech synthesis — In 1980, the first known video game to feature speech synthesis was released: Sunsoft's shoot 'em up game Stratovox.^[530]
• Stealth game — The first stealth-based video game was Hiroshi Suzuki's Manbiki Shounen (1979). The first commercially successful stealth game was Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear (1987), the first in the Metal Gear series. It was followed by Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990) which significantly expanded the genre, and then Metal Gear Solid (1998).
  • 3D stealth game — A gameplay demo of Metal Gear Solid was first revealed to the public at the 1996 Tokyo Game Show and was later shown at E3 1997 as a short video.^[531] Tenchu: Stealth Assassins was the first 3D stealth game to be released in 1998,^[532] followed by Metal Gear Solid months later.^[531]
• Streaming audio in video games — Nintendo's arcade title EVR Race (1975) was the first video game to play pre-recorded audio, streamed from a video tape.^[533]
• Survival game — Survival scenarios date back to Space Invaders (1978), Pac-Man (1980) and survival horror.^[431] Survival mechanics were introduced in Panorama Toh (1983)^[346] and Hydlide 3 (1987).^[354] SOS (1993) was an early survival game.^[534]
• Texture mapping — Namco's SimDrive (SimRoad) for the Namco System 22,^[415][416] with a limited 1992 release,^[417] introduced 3D texture mapping.^[535]
  • Texture filtering — The Sega Model 2 arcade system introduced the use of 3D texture filtering with Daytona USA,^[536] which debuted at Tokyo's Amusement Machine Show in August 1993.^[537][538]
• Third-person shooter (TPS) — Radar Scope (1979) introduced a pseudo-3D perspective.^[539] Zoom 909 (1982) added on-rails movement.^[540] Devastators (1988) added taking cover.^[541][542] Last Survivor (1989) added free‑roaming and deathmatch.^[543]
  • 3D third-person shooter (3D TPS) — Namco's Cyber Sled (1993) was the earliest TPS with 3D polygon graphics.^[544]
  • Over-the-shoulder (OTS) — Resident Evil 4 (2005) redefined the third-person shooter genre^[545] with its "over the shoulder" offset camera angles, where the camera is placed directly over the right shoulder and therefore doesn't obscure the action.^[546]
• Video game mascot — Pac-Man, who debuted in Namco's 1980 arcade game Pac-Man, is recognized as the first video game mascot.^[317]
• Video game music (VGM) — Dates back to the opening chiptune in Gun Fight (1975).^[547] First game with continuous music was Space Invaders (1978).^[548] First video game with continuous melodic music was Rally-X (1980).^[530]
  • Digital sampling — Namco's arcade game Rally-X (1980) was the first game to use a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to produce sampled tones instead of a tone generator.^[548]
  • Streaming video game music — Sega's Astron Belt, debuted in 1982 and released in early 1983, was the first video game with streaming music.^[414]
• Video game voice acting — The first video game with voice acting was Nintendo's arcade game EVR Race (1975).^[533]
• Visual novel (VN) — The visual novel genre is a type of interactive fiction developed in Japan in the early 1990s. As the name suggests, visual novels typically have limited interactivity, as most player interaction is restricted to clicking text and graphics.^[549]

Sciences

See also: Science and technology in Japan and History of science and technology in Japan

Atmospheric science

A downburst.

• Downburst — Downbursts, strong ground-level wind systems that emanate from a point above and blow radially, were discovered by Ted Fujita.^[550]
• Fujita scale — The first scale designed to measure tornado intensity, the Fujita scale, was first introduced by Ted Fujita (in collaboration with Allen Pearson) in 1971. The scale was widely adopted throughout the world until the development of the Enhanced Fujita scale.^[551]
• Fujiwhara effect — The Fujiwhara effect is an atmospheric phenomenon where two nearby cyclonic vortices orbit each other and close the distance between the circulations of their corresponding low-pressure areas. The effect was first described by Sakuhei Fujiwhara in 1921.^[552]
• Jet stream — Jet streams were first discovered by Japanese meteorologist Wasaburo Oishi by tracking ceiling balloons. However, Oishi's work largely went unnoticed outside Japan because it was published in Esperanto.^[553][554]
• Microburst — The microburst was first discovered and identified as a small scale downburst affecting an area 4 km (2.5 mi) in diameter or less by Ted Fujita in 1974. Microbursts are recognized as capable of generating wind speeds higher than 270 km/h (170 mph). In addition, Fujita also discovered macrobursts and classified them as downbursts larger than 4 km (2.5 mi).^[550]

Chemistry and biomedical

See also: Kampo

Image from "Surgical Casebook" (Kishitsu geryō zukan) by Hanaoka Seishu

• Agar — Agar was discovered in Japan around 1658 by Mino Tarōzaemon.^[555]
• Aspergillus oryzae — The genome for Aspergillus oryzae was sequenced and released by a consortium of Japanese biotechnology companies,^[556] in late 2005.^[557]

• CRISPR — Yoshizumi Ishino discovered CRISPR in 1987.^[558]
• Dementia with Lewy bodies — First described in 1976 by psychiatrist Kenji Kosaka.^[559] Kosaka was awarded the Asahi Prize in 2013 for his discovery.^[560]

  

  Miniature USB microscope, a type of digital microscope.

• Digital microscope — Japanese company Hirox created the first ever digital microscope. A variation of a traditional microscope using optics and a digital camera to output an image to a monitor.
• Ephedrine synthesis — Ephedrine in its natural form, known as má huáng (麻黄) in traditional Chinese medicine, had been documented in China since the Han dynasty.^[561] However, it was not until 1885 that the chemical synthesis of ephedrine was first accomplished by Japanese organic chemist Nagai Nagayoshi.
• Epinephrine (Adrenaline) — Japanese chemist Jōkichi Takamine and his assistant Keizo Uenaka first discovered epinephrine in 1900.^[562][563] In 1901 Takamine successfully isolated and purified the hormone from the adrenal glands of sheep and oxen.^[564]
• Esophagogastroduodenoscope — Mutsuo Sugiura was a Japanese engineer famous for being the first to develop a Gastro-camera (a present-day Esophagogastroduodenoscope). His story was illustrated in the NHK TV documentary feature, "Project X: Challengers: The Development of a Gastro-camera Wholly Made in Japan". Sugiura graduated from Tokyo Polytechnic University in 1938 and then joined Olympus Corporation. While working at this company, he first developed an esophagogastroduodenoscope in 1950.
• Frontier molecular orbital theory — Kenichi Fukui developed and published a paper on Frontier molecular orbital theory in 1952.^[565]
• General anesthesia — Hanaoka Seishū was the first surgeon in the world who used the general anaesthesia in surgery, in 1804, and who dared to operate on cancers of the breast and oropharynx, to remove necrotic bone, and to perform amputations of the extremities in Japan.^[566]
• High resolution ultrasound machine — Developed by Toshiba between 1971 and 1975.^[567]
• Immunoglobulin E (IgE) — Immunoglobulin E is a type of antibody only found in mammals. IgE was simultaneously discovered in 1966-7 by two independent groups:^[568] Kimishige Ishizaka's team at the Children's Asthma Research Institute and Hospital in Denver, Colorado,^[569] and by Gunnar Johansson and Hans Bennich in Uppsala, Sweden.^[570] Their joint paper was published in April 1969.^[571]
• Induced pluripotent stem cell — The induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) is a kind of pluripotent stem cell which can be created using a mature cell. iPSCs technology was developed by Shinya Yamanaka and his lab workers in 2006.^[572]

Chemical structure of methamphetamine

• Methamphetamine — Methamphetamine was first synthesized from ephedrine in Japan in 1894 by chemist Nagayoshi Nagai.^[573] In 1919, methamphetamine hydrochloride was synthesized by pharmacologist Akira Ogata.^[574]
• Nihonium — Element 113. Named after Nihon, the local name for Japan.
• Okazaki fragment — Okazaki fragments are short, newly synthesized DNA fragments that are formed on the lagging template strand during DNA replication. They are complementary to the lagging template strand, together forming short double-stranded DNA sections. A series of experiments led to the discovery of Okazaki fragments. The experiments were conducted during the 1960s by Reiji Okazaki, Tsuneko Okazaki, Kiwako Sakabe, and their colleagues during their research on DNA replication of Escherichia coli.^[575] In 1966, Kiwako Sakabe and Reiji Okazaki first showed that DNA replication was a discontinuous process involving fragments.^[576] The fragments were further investigated by the researchers and their colleagues through their research including the study on bacteriophage DNA replication in Escherichia coli.^[577][578]
• Photocatalysis — Akira Fujishima discovered photocatalysis occurring on the surface of titanium dioxide in 1967.^[579]
• Pulse oximetry — Pulse oximetry was developed in 1972, by Takuo Aoyagi and Michio Kishi, bioengineers, at Nihon Kohden using the ratio of red to infrared light absorption of pulsating components at the measuring site. Susumu Nakajima, a surgeon, and his associates first tested the device in patients, reporting it in 1975.^[580]
• Portable electrocardiograph — Taro Takemi built the first portable electrocardiograph in 1937.^[581]

• Statin — The statin class of drugs was first discovered by Akira Endo, a Japanese biochemist working for the pharmaceutical company Sankyo. Mevastatin was the first discovered member of the statin class.^[582]
• Takadiastase — A form of diastase which results from the growth, development and nutrition of a distinct microscopic fungus known as Aspergillus oryzae. Jōkichi Takamine developed the method first used for its extraction in the late 19th century.^[583]
• Thiamine (Vitamin B₁) — Thiamine was the first of the water-soluble vitamins to be described,^[584] leading to the discovery of more such trace compounds essential for survival and to the notion of vitamin. It was not until 1884 that Kanehiro Takaki (1849–1920) attributed beriberi to insufficient nitrogen intake (protein deficiency). In 1910, Japanese scientist Umetaro Suzuki succeeded in extracting a water-soluble complex of micronutrients from rice bran and named it aberic acid. He published this discovery in a Japanese scientific journal.^[585] The Polish biochemist Kazimierz Funk later proposed the complex be named "Vitamine" (a portmanteau of "vital amine") in 1912.^[586]
• Urushiol — Urushiol, a mixture of alkyl catechols, was discovered by Rikou Majima. Majima also discovered that Urushiol was an allergen which gave members of the genus Toxicodendron, such as poison ivy and poison oak, their skin-irritating properties.^[587]
• Vectorcardiography — Taro Takemi invented the vectorcardiograph in 1939.^[581]

Mathematics

See also: Japanese mathematics

A page from Seki Kōwa's Katsuyo Sampo (1712), tabulating binomial coefficients and Bernoulli numbers.

• Bernoulli number — Studied by Seki Kōwa and published after his death, in 1712. Jacob Bernoulli independently developed the concept in the same period, though his work was published a year later.^{[588][589][590]}
• Calculus — Seki Kōwa (1642–1708) founded Enri, a mathematical system with the same purpose as calculus.^[591]
  • Itô calculus — Developed by Kiyosi Itô throughout the 20th century, Itô calculus extends calculus to stochastic processes such as Brownian motion (Wiener process). Its basic concept is the Itô integral, and among the most important results is a change of variable formula known as Itô's lemma. Itô calculus is widely applied in various fields, but is perhaps best known for its use in mathematical finance.^[592]
• Determinant — In Japan, determinants were introduced to study elimination of variables in systems of higher-order algebraic equations. They used it to give shorthand representation for the resultant. The determinant as an independent function was first studied by Seki Kōwa in 1683.^[590][593]
• Elimination theory — In 1683 (Kai-Fukudai-no-Hō), Seki Kōwa came up with elimination theory, based on resultant.^[593] To express resultant, he developed the notion of determinant.^[593]
• Hironaka's example — Hironaka's example is a non-Kähler complex manifold that is a deformation of Kähler manifolds discovered by Heisuke Hironaka.^[594]
• Iwasawa theory and the Main conjecture of Iwasawa theory — Initially created by Kenkichi Iwasawa, Iwasawa theory was originally developed as a Galois module theory of ideal class groups. The main conjecture of Iwasawa theory is a deep relationship between p-adic L-functions and ideal class groups of cyclotomic fields, proved by Iwasawa^[595] for primes satisfying the Kummer–Vandiver conjecture and proved for all primes by Mazur and Wiles.^[596][597]
• Japanese theorem for cyclic quadrilaterals — In geometry, the Japanese theorem states that the centers of the incircles of certain triangles inside a cyclic quadrilateral are vertices of a rectangle. It was originally stated on a sangaku tablet in 1880.^[598]
• Japanese theorem for cyclic polygons — In geometry, the Japanese theorem states that no matter how one triangulates a cyclic polygon, the sum of inradii of triangles is constant.^[599] This result comes from a sangaku tablet dated 1800.^[598]
• Resultant — In 1683 (Kai-Fukudai-no-Hō), Seki Kōwa came up with elimination theory, based on resultant. To express resultant, he developed the notion of determinant.^[593]
• Richardson extrapolation — Takebe Katahiro used Richardson extrapolation in 1695, about 200 years earlier than Richardson.^[600]
• Sangaku — Japanese geometric puzzles on wooden tablets created during the Edo period (1603–1867) by members of all social classes. The Dutch Japanologist Isaac Titsingh introduced sangaku to the West when he returned to Europe in the late 1790s.^[601]
• Soddy's hexlet — Irisawa Shintarō Hiroatsu analyzed Soddy's hexlet in a Sangaku in 1822 and was the first person to do so.^[602]
• Takagi existence theorem — Takagi existence theorem was developed by Teiji Takagi in isolation during World War I. He presented it at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1920.^[603]
• Two-valued Boolean algebra — Discovered independently by NEC engineer Akira Nakashima. From 1934 to 1936, his switching circuit theory showed that two-valued Boolean algebra can describe the operation of switching circuits.^{[604][605][606]}

Physics

445–450 nm blue laser (middle)

• Blue laser — In 1992, Japanese inventor Shuji Nakamura invented the first efficient blue LED.^[607] He won a 2014 Nobel Prize with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano.^{[608][609][610]}
• Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix — Building off the work of Nicola Cabibbo, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa introduced the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix which introduced for three generations of quarks. In 2008, Kobayashi and Maskawa shared one half of the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature".^[611]
• High definition space camera — NHK and Sony developed the first high definition video camcorder used on a spacecraft, the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998.^[612][613]
• Nagaoka model (first Saturnian model of the atom) — In 1904, Hantaro Nagaoka proposed the first planetary model of the atom as an alternative to J. J. Thomson's plum pudding model. Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr would later develop the more viable Bohr model in 1913.^[614]
• Sakata model — The Sakata model was a precursor to the quark model proposed by Shoichi Sakata in 1956.^[615][616]
• Planetarium projector with 3D ray tracing — LINKS-1 Computer Graphics System was used to create the first 3D planetarium video made with ray-traced 3D computer graphics. It was presented with Fujitsu at a 1985 Tsukuba event.^[109]
• Quantum tunnelling — In 1957, Leo Esaki demonstrated tunneling of electrons over a few nanometer wide barrier in a semiconductor structure and developed a diode based on tunnel effect.^[617] He was awarded a 1973 Nobel Prize.^[618][619]
  • Quantum Hall effect — Originally predicted by University of Tokyo researchers led by Tsuneya Ando in 1975.^[620] In 1978, Gakushuin University's Jun-ichi Wakabayashi and Shinji Kawaji observed the effect in experiments carried out on MOSFETs.^[621]
• Solar sail — The first spacecraft to successfully use solar sail technology for propulsion was IKAROS, launched in 2010.^[622]

Semiconductors

See also: Semiconductor industry in Japan

Blue LEDs

• Avalanche photodiode — Invented by Jun-ichi Nishizawa in 1952.^[623]
• Blue LED — In 1992 Japanese inventor Shuji Nakamura invented the first efficient blue LED.^[607] He won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics.^[608]
  • White LED — In 1996, Nichia developed the world's first white LED, by combining blue LED with yellow phosphor. This is the basis for most modern LED technology.^[624][625]
• CMOS large-scale integration (CMOS LSI) — Toshiba used C²MOS technology to develop a CMOS LSI chip for Sharp's Elsi Mini LED pocket calculator in 1971.^[626]
  • Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) — NTT initiated VLSI Development Project (1975), leading to development of VLSI DRAM memory chips in 1970s Japan.^[627]
• Glass integrated circuit — Shunpei Yamazaki invented an integrated circuit made entirely from glass and with an 8-bit central processing unit.^[628]
• Graded-index optical fiber — Invented by Jun-ichi Nishizawa in the early 1960s, as a channel for transmitting light from semiconductor lasers.^[629][630] Patented in 1964.^[631]
• Green LED — Developed by Junichi Nishizawa in 1971.^[632]
• PIN diode/photodiode — Invented by Jun-ichi Nishizawa and his colleagues in 1950.^[633]
• Semiconductor laser — Invented by Jun-ichi Nishizawa in 1957.^[623][631]
  • Continuous wave semiconductor laser — Co-invented by Izuo Hayashi (1970). It's commonly used for fiber-optics, laser printers, barcode readers and optical discs.^[634]
  • Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) — First proposal of short cavity VCSEL was by Kenichi Iga at Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1977. In 1979, first demonstration on short cavity VCSEL was by Soda, Iga, Kitahara and Suematsu.^[635]
• Solid-state maser — Invented by Jun-ichi Nishizawa in 1955.^[623]
• Three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) — In 1969, a 3D MOS IC (3D IC) memory chip was proposed by NEC.^[636] 3D ICs were demonstrated in 1980s Japan, with R&D initiated in 1981.^[637] In 1983, Fujitsu fabricated a 3D CMOS IC chip.^[638]
  • Through-silicon via (TSV) — First 3D ICs with TSV were fabricated in 1980s Japan. Patents filed by Hitachi (1983) and Fujitsu (1984).^[639]
  • Wafer bonding — Developed from 1981 to 1990 by Yoshihiro Hayashi's NEC research team, who fabricated a two active layer 3D IC chip.^{[640][637][641]}
• Tunnel diode — It was invented in August 1957 by Leo Esaki and Yuriko Kurose when working at Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, now known as Sony.^{[642][643][644]}
• White OLED — Pioneered by J. Kido's team at Yamagata University in 1995. It led to the commercialization of OLED displays and lighting.^[645][646]

Transistors

See also: Semiconductor industry in Japan

A double-gate FinFET transistor device

• Field-effect transistor (FET) — The first type of FET to be successfully built was the JFET.^[647] The static induction transistor (SIT), a type of JFET, was invented by Japanese engineers Jun-ichi Nishizawa and Y. Watanabe in 1950.^[648]
  • Junction FET (JFET) — The first type of JFET was the static induction transistor (SIT), invented by Japanese engineers Jun-ichi Nishizawa and Y. Watanabe in 1950. The SIT is a type of JFET with a short channel length.^[649]
  • Static induction transistor (SIT) — Invented by Jun-ichi Nishizawa and Y. Watanabe in 1950.^[650]
  • C²MOS — Toshiba developed C²MOS (Clocked CMOS), a circuit technology with lower power consumption and faster operating speed than ordinary CMOS, in 1969.^[626]
  • Twin-well CMOS — In 1978, Toshiaki Masuhara's Hitachi team introduced the twin-well Hi-CMOS process with the HM6147 memory chip.^{[651][652][653]} Twin-well CMOS became the most common semiconductor process in the 1980s.^[651]
  • Microscale transistor — In 1979, NTT demonstrated a 1 μm MOS transistor for their 64 kb DRAM memory chip.^[654]
• Insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) — The basic IGBT mode of operation, where a pnp transistor is driven by a MOSFET, was first proposed by K. Yamagami and Y. Akagiri of Mitsubishi Electric in the Japanese patent S47-21739, filed in 1968.^[655]
  • Non-latch-up IGBT — Akio Nakagawa's Toshiba team invented the device design concept of non-latch-up IGBTs in 1984.^[656]
• Multi-gate MOSFET — A double-gate MOSFET was proposed by Toshihiro Sekigawa of ETL in a 1980 patent describing the XMOS transistor.^[657] Sekigawa fabricated the XMOS transistor with Yutaka Hayashi at ETL in 1984.^[658][659]
  • Fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) — Began with DELTA transistor demonstrated by Digh Hisamoto's Hitachi team in 1989.^[658][660] Hisamoto later co-developed N-channel FinFET in 1998 and P-channel FinFET in 1999.^[661]
  • GAAFET — Gate-all-around (GAA) MOSFET first demonstrated in 1988 by Toshiba research team including Fujio Masuoka, Hiroshi Takato, and Kazumasa Sunouchi, who demonstrated a vertical nanowire GAAFET.^{[662][663][664]}
• Power MOSFET — In 1969, Hitachi introduced a vertical power MOSFET.^[665] Jun-ichi Nishizawa invented a power MOSFET in 1974. JVC, Pioneer, Sony and Toshiba began manufacturing power MOSFETs in 1974.^[666]
  • DMOS — In 1969, the DMOS (double-diffused MOSFET) with self-aligned gate was first reported by Y. Tarui, Y. Hayashi and Toshihiro Sekigawa of the Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL).^[667]
  • LDMOS — In 1977, Hitachi introduced the LDMOS transistor. They were the only LDMOS manufacturer between 1977 and 1983, mainly for audio power amplifiers and PA systems.^[666]

• VMOS — V-groove construction pioneered by Jun-ichi Nishizawa in 1969.^[668] VMOS was invented by Hitachi in 1969.^[669]

Technology

See also: Science and technology in Japan, History of science and technology in Japan, and Electronics industry in Japan

Sony home cinema setup, with full HD LCD television, digital TV set-top box, DVD player, PlayStation 3 video game console, and loudspeakers.

• Advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) — Developed by Toshiba, Hitachi and GE. In 1996, the first ABWR entered commercial operation in Japan.^[567]
• Artificial snowflake — The first artificial snowflake was created by Ukichiro Nakaya in 1936, three years after his first attempt.^[670]
• Automatic door with infrared sensor — OPTEX, a Japanese company founded by Toru Kobayashi, invented the first automatic door using infrared sensor technology in 1980. It was developed using far infrared technology.^[671]

• Double-coil bulb — In 1921, Junichi Miura created the first double-coil bulb using a coiled coil tungsten filament while working for Hakunetsusha (a predecessor of Toshiba). At the time, machinery to mass-produce coiled coil filaments did not exist. Hakunetsusha developed a method to mass-produce coiled coil filaments by 1936.^[672]
  • Compact fluorescent bulb — Toshiba began development after the 1973 oil crisis and had a trial run in 1978, before commercially releasing it as the "Neo Ball" in 1980.^[567]
• KS steel — Magnetic resistant steel that is three times more resistant than tungsten steel, invented by Kotaro Honda.^[673] It was developed in 1917.^[674]
  • MKM steel — MKM steel, an alloy containing nickel and aluminum, was developed in 1931 by the Japanese metallurgist Tokuhichi Mishima.^[675][676]
  • Neodymium magnet — Neodymium magnets were invented independently in 1982 by General Motors (GM) and Sumitomo Special Metals.^[677]
• Mechatronics — The term "mechatronics" was coined and defined by Tetsuro Mori, an engineer from Yaskawa Electric Corporation, in 1969.^[678]

QR code] for the URL of the English Wikipedia mobile main page

• QR code — The QR code, a type of matrix barcode, was invented by Denso Wave in 1994.^[679]
• Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) — In the early 1950s, Fuji Electric developed an early UPS, demonstrated in 1954.^[680] Between 1964 and 1967, Toshiba developed the first large-scale UPS.^[567]
  • Vector-control inverter — Introduced by Toshiba in 1979.^[567]
  • Microprocessor-based numerical relay — Introduced by Toshiba in 1980.^[567]
• Washi — By the 7th century, paper had been introduced to Japan from Korea. The washi papermaking technique was developed in Japan during the Heian period around 805 to 809.^[5][6][681]

Audio

See also: Music of Japan

Sony Discman D121

• 3.5 mm headphone jack — Introduced with the Sony EFM-117J transistor radio in 1964.^[682]
• Automatic dual-side record player — In 1981, Sharp released the first record player that automatically switches sides of a vinyl record.^[683][101]
• Bit Rate Reduction (BRR) — Audio compression method developed by Sony, used for the Super Nintendo, Philips CD-i, Sony PlayStation, and Apple Macintosh Quadra.^[684]
• Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) — Developed by Sony and Philips in 1980. Its 16-bit audio bit depth and 44.1 sample rate was proposed by Sony, based on their earlier PCM adaptor technology.^[685]
  • CD player — Sony released the world's first CD Player, called the CDP-101,^[686] in 1982, using a slide-out tray design for the Compact Disc.
  • Portable CD player — Sony's Discman, released in 1984, was the first portable CD player.^[687]
• Digital audio tape recorder — Heitaro Nakajima, head of NHK's Technical Research Laboratories, in 1967 had commenced work on the digitization of sound and within two years had developed the first digital audio tape recorder.^[688]
  • Commercial digital recording — Commercial digital recording was pioneered in Japan by NHK and Nippon Columbia, also known as Denon, in the 1960s. The first commercial digital recordings were released in 1971.^[689]
  • Digital audio player — Sony's PCM-1, introduced in 1976, was the first commercial product allowing digital audio recording and playback, using Betamax cassette tapes as a storage medium.^[688]
  • Digital audio tape (DAT) — Introduced by Sony in 1987.^[690]
  • PCM adaptor — The first pulse-code modulation (PCM) adaptor was Sony's PCM-1, introduced in 1976.^[688]
  • 44,100 Hz (44.1 kHz) — The 44.1 kHz sample rate standard was introduced with Sony's PCM adaptor technology in the late 1970s.^[685]
• Digital sampled loops — Namco's Rally-X (1980) was the first game soundtrack with sampled loops.^[548] Digital sampled loops in popular music dates back to YMO,^[691] who released the first album with mostly samples and loops, Technodelic (1981).^[692]
• High-resolution delta-sigma modulation — In 1999, Sharp Corporation introduced the first 1-bit amplifier utilizing 2.8 MHz high-resolution sampling with 7th order delta-sigma modulation.^[101][693]
• Home stereo system — In 1962, Pioneer Corporation introduced the world's first home stereo system with detachable speakers.^[694]
• Human voice synthesis — Early speech synthesis systems typically produced a low-quality robotic voice. In 1998, Toshiba introduced the first speech synthesis system that produced a high-quality human voice.^[567]
• Integrated amplifier — Sony's TA-1120 (1965) was the first silicon transistor stereo integrated amplifier. Compared to vacuum tube amplifiers at the time, the TA-1120 offered higher output with lower distortion.^[695]
  • 9.1 amplifier — The Sony TA-DA5700ES (2011) was the first 9.1 surround sound integrated amplifier.^[695]
• Karaoke — There are various disputes about who first invented the name karaoke (a Japanese word meaning "empty orchestra"). One claim is that the karaoke styled machine was invented by Japanese musician Daisuke Inoue^[696] in Kobe, Japan, in 1971.^[697][698]
• Microprocessor music sequencer — In 1977, the Roland MC-8 Microcomposer was an early stand-alone, microprocessor‑based, digital CV/gate sequencer.^[699][700]
  • Polyphonic digital sequencer — In 1977, the Roland MC-8 Microcomposer was an early polyphonic digital sequencer.^[701][702]
• Paper audio record — In the early 1950s, Yoshiro Nakamatsu invented the Jūshoku record, an optical sound media which uses a printed paper sheet instead of transparent film.^[703] A patent was issued in 1952.^[704]
• Perceptual coding — First used for speech coding compression, with linear predictive coding (LPC).^[705] Initial concepts for LPC date back to the work of Fumitada Itakura (Nagoya University) and Shuzo Saito (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) in 1966.^[706]
• Sound chip — The earliest was Sony's PCM-1, a pulse-code modulation (PCM) processor chip introduced in 1976.^[688]
  • ADPCM sound chip — The earliest was Oki's MSM5205, a speech synthesis chip released in 1979.^[707][708]
  • FM synthesis sound chip — Introduced by Yamaha in 1983, with the YM2128 & YM2129 chipset in the DX7 synthesizer^{[709][710][711]} and the Yamaha YM2151 chip in the SFG-01 sound module.^[712]
  • Wavetable synthesis sound chip — The Namco WSG (Waveform Sound Generator) was a wavetable synthesis chip introduced in 1980 and used in several arcade system boards including the Namco Pac-Man and Namco Galaga.^[713][714]
• Speech coding
  • Linear predictive coding (LPC) — The origins of linear predictive coding (LPC) date back to the work of Fumitada Itakura (Nagoya University) and Shuzo Saito (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) in 1966.^[706]
  • Line spectral pairs (LSP) — Developed by Fumitada Itakura,^[715] at NTT in 1975.^[716]
• Walkman — Under the leadership of Akio Morita, Sony launched the Walkman in 1979. Morita positioned the Walkman in the youth market and created a headset culture.^[717]

Batteries

A lithium-ion battery pack for a laptop computer.

• Lithium-ion battery — Akira Yoshino invented the modern li-ion battery in 1985. In 1991, Sony and Asahi Kasei released the first commercial lithium-ion battery using Yoshino's design.^[718]
• Dry cell — The world's first dry-battery was invented in Japan during the Meiji Era. The inventor was Sakizou Yai. The company Yai founded no longer exists^[719]

Calculators

Casio electronic pocket calculator with a seven-segment liquid-crystal display (LCD) that can perform arithmetic operations

• All-electric compact calculator — In 1957, Casio's Model 14-A was the first all-electric compact calculator, based on relay technology.^[720]
  • All-transistor desktop calculator — In 1964, Sharp Corporation's CS-10A was the first all-transistor-diode electronic desktop calculator.^[721][722]
• Integrated circuit calculator — Between 1964 and 1966, Sharp Corporation developed the CS-31A, the first electronic calculator incorporating integrated circuit (IC) chips.^[722][723]
  • LSI calculator — Sharp Corporation's QT-8D Micro Compet, released in 1969, was the first calculator to use large-scale integration (LSI) metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) chips.^{[724][725][101]}
  • Microprocessor calculator — Busicom's 141-PF, released in 1971, was the first calculator to use a microprocessor, the Intel 4004.^[726] It was the first commercial product to use a microprocessor.^[727]
• Pocket calculator — The first portable calculators appeared in Japan in 1970, and were soon marketed around the world. These included the Sanyo ICC-0081 "Mini Calculator", the Canon Pocketronic, and the Sharp QT-8B "micro Compet". Sharp put in great efforts in size and power reduction and introduced in January 1971 the Sharp EL-8, also marketed as the Facit 1111, which was close to being a pocket calculator. It weighed about one pound, had a vacuum fluorescent display, and rechargeable NiCad batteries. The first truly pocket-sized electronic calculator was the Busicom LE-120A "HANDY", which was marketed early in 1971.^[728]
  • LED calculator — Busicom's LE-120A (Handy-LE) and LE-120S (Handy), released in 1971, were the first calculators to use LED displays.^[729]
  • LCD calculator — Busicom's Handy-LC (1971) was the first calculator with a liquid-crystal display (LCD).^[729]
  • Graphing calculator — Casio released the first commercial graphing calculator in 1985. Sharp released its first graphing calculator in 1986.^[730]
  • Touch key calculator — In 1975, Sharp released the lsimate EL-8130 Arithmetic Calculator, the first touch key calculator. Instead of a push-button keypad, it had a flat touch key interface using membrane keypad (like touchpad or touchscreen).^[731]
• Soroban — The soroban is an abacus developed in Japan. It is derived from the ancient Chinese suanpan, imported to Japan in the 14th century.^[732]

Cameras

Minolta RD-175, a portable digital SLR (DLSR) camera released in 1995.

• Active-pixel sensor (APS) — The first MOS APS image sensor was invented by Olympus in Japan during the mid-1980s.^[733]
  • NMOS vertical APS — The original Olympus APS imager from 1985 had a vertical APS structure and used NMOS transistors.^[733]
  • PMOS lateral APS — Between 1988 and 1991, Toshiba developed the "double-gate floating surface transistor" sensor, which had a lateral APS structure and used PMOS transistors. Its lateral APS structure was later the basis for the CMOS sensor.^[733]
  • Stacked CMOS — In 2012, Sony released the first stacked CMOS sensor, the Exmor RS.^[734]
  • Intelligent vision sensor — In 2020, Sony has launched the first intelligent vision sensors with AI edge computing capabilies.^[735]
• Camcorder — In 1983, Sony released the first camcorder, the Betacam system, for professional use.^[736] Sony released the first consumer camcorder in 1983, the Betamovie BMC-100P.^[736]
• Color home video camera — In 1973, Toshiba released the first color video camera for home use.^[567]
• Digital camera with memory card — In 1988, Fujifilm introduced the FUJIX DS-1P, the first fully digital camera to record digital images using a semiconductor memory card. The memory card had a capacity of 2 MB static RAM (SRAM).^[737]
  • Front-facing camera — The first was Nintendo's Game Boy Camera, released as an accessory for the Game Boy handheld game console in February 1998.^[738]
  • MPEG-4 video camera — In 1999, Sharp Corporation's Internet Viewcam was the first video camera to support MPEG-4 video files.^[739]
  • Digital 3D stereo camera — The Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D from Fujifilm was the first digital 3D stereoscopic camera, released in 2009.^[740]
• Digital single-lens reflex camera (DLSR) — On August 25, 1981 Sony unveiled a prototype of the first still video camera, the Sony Mavica. This camera was an analog electronic camera that featured interchangeable lenses and a SLR viewfinder. At photokina in 1986, Nikon revealed a prototype analog electronic still SLR camera, the Nikon SVC, the first digital SLR. The prototype body shared many features with the N8008.^[741]
  • Full-frame DSLR — The first full-frame DSLR cameras were developed in Japan from around 2000 to 2002: the MZ-D by Pentax,^[742] the N Digital by Contax,^[743] and the EOS-1Ds by Canon Inc.^[744]
• DV format — Introduced in 1995, the format was developed by Sony and several other Japanese video camera manufacturers.^[745]
• Electronic viewfinder (EVF) — In 1988, Epson's EVF Liquid Crystal Panel Module was the first liquid-crystal display (LCD) viewfinder.^[746]
• Handheld TV camera — Ikegami Tsushinki introduced the first portable 4 1/2-inch Image Orthicon tube hand-held TV camera.^[747] The camera made its US debut in February 1962.^[747]
  • Portapak — In 1967, Sony unveiled the first self-contained video tape analog recording system that was portable.^[748]
  • Electronic news gathering (ENG) — Portapak (1967) led to the development of ENG.^[749][750] In 1972, Ikegami Tsushinki's HL-33 was the first compact handheld color video camera for ENG.^[751]
• High-definition video camera (HD) — In 1984, the Sony HDC-100 was the first commercial HDTV camera.^[752]
  • Ultra HD video camera (UHD) — In 2003, NHK and JVC researchers developed a prototype UHD video camera.^[753]
  • 8K resolution video camera — In 2003, NHK and JVC researchers developed a prototype 8K video disc recorder.^[753]
• Pinned photodiode (PPD) — Invented by Nobukazu Teranishi, Hiromitsu Shiraki and Yasuo Ishihara at NEC in 1980.^[754][755]
• Selfie stick — Minolta Disc-7 camera (1983) had a package showing the camera mounted on a stick.^[756] A "telescopic extender" for handheld cameras was patented by Ueda Hiroshi and Mima Yujiro in 1983.^[757]
• Still video camera — Canon began developing a still video system in 1977.^[758] The first still video camera was the Sony Mavica, which was introduced in 1981.^[759]

Chindōgu

Main article: Chindōgu

Chindōgu is the Japanese art of inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that, on the face of it, seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem. However, Chindōgu has a distinctive feature: anyone actually attempting to use one of these inventions would find that it causes so many new problems, or such significant social embarrassment, that effectively it has no utility whatsoever. Thus, Chindōgu are sometimes described as "unuseless" – that is, they cannot be regarded as 'useless' in an absolute sense, since they do actually solve a problem; however, in practical terms, they cannot positively be called "useful". The term "Chindōgu" was coined by Kenji Kawakami.

Computing

See also: Supercomputing in Japan

Epson HX-20, introduced in 1981, was the first laptop.

• E-reader with electronic paper — The Sony Librie, released in 2004 and the precursor to the Sony Reader, was the first e‑reader to use electronic paper.^[760]
• Fifth generation computer — MITI's Fifth Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) project launched in 1982 researched massively parallel processing, logic programming, AI, natural language processing and interactive processing.^[761]
  • AI home computer — The earliest home computer specialized for AI natural language processing was the Sega AI Computer, released in 1986. Its AI technology was based on Prolog, like the fifth generation project.^{[762][305][307]}
  • Massively parallel — FGCS initiative was launched in 1982 to develop computers based on massively parallel computing.^[761] LINKS-1 (1982) was a massively parallel computer with 514 microprocessors.^[109]
• Handheld computer — The Epson HX-20 was the first handheld computer.^[763] It was introduced by Seiko Epson in 1981.^[764][765]
  • Laptop — The first was the Epson HX-20,^[766][765] invented by Suwa Seikosha's Yukio Yokozawa in 1980.^[767]
  • Notebook computer — Yukio Yokozawa, an employee for Suwa Seikosha, a branch of Seiko (now Seiko Epson), invented the first notebook computer in July 1980, receiving a patent for the invention.^[768] Seiko's notebook computer, known as the HC-20 in Japan, was announced in 1981.^[769] In North America, Epson introduced it as the Epson HX-20 in 1981, at the COMDEX computer show in Las Vegas, where it drew significant attention for its portability.^[764] It had a mass-market release in July 1982, as the HC-20 in Japan^[769] and as the Epson HX-20 in North America.^[770] It was the first notebook-sized handheld computer,^{[766][769][770]} the size of an A4 notebook and weighing 1.6 kg (3.5 lb).^[769] In 1983, the Sharp PC-5000^[771] and Ampere WS-1 laptops from Japan featured a modern clamshell design.^[772][773]
• Microcomputer — The Sord SMP80/08, developed from 1972 to early 1973, was one of the first microcomputers, using the Intel 8008 microprocessor. In early 1974, the Sord SMP80/x was the first microcomputer to use the Intel 8080 microprocessor.^[774]
  • 16-bit microcomputer — In March 1977, the Panafacom Lkit-16 was released. It was an early 16-bit microcomputer, based on the 16-bit Panafacom MN1610 (1975) microprocessor.^[775]
  • Home computer with floppy disk drive — In 1977, Sord's M200 Smart Home Computer was an early integrated home desktop computer with a Zilog Z80 CPU, keyboard, CRT display, floppy disk drive and MF-DOS operating system.^[776]
• Microprocessor — The concept of a single-chip microprocessor central processing unit (CPU) was conceived in a 1968 meeting in Japan between Sharp engineer Tadashi Sasaki and a software engineering researcher from Nara Women's College. Sasaki discussed the microprocessor concept with Busicom and Intel in 1968.^[777] The first commercial microprocessor, the 4-bit Intel 4004, began with the "Busicom Project"^[778] in 1968 as Masatoshi Shima's three-chip CPU design,^[779][778] which was simplified down to a single-chip microprocessor, designed from 1969 to 1970 by Intel's Marcian Hoff and Federico Faggin and Busicom's Masatoshi Shima, and commercially released in 1971.^[778][780]
  • NMOS microprocessor — NEC's μCOM-4 (1973) was the earliest NMOS microprocessor, fabricated by the NEC LSI team consisting of five researchers led by Sohichi Suzuki.^[781][782]
  • 12-bit microprocessor — The Toshiba TLCS-12 (1973) was the first 12-bit microprocessor.^[783]
  • 16-bit microprocessor — The first single-chip 16-bit microprocessor was the Panafacom MN1610 (1975).^{[784][785][786]} An earlier multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor was the two-chip NEC μCOM-16 (1974).^[787][786]
  • Microcontroller unit (MCU) — In the early 1970s, Japanese electronics manufacturers began producing microcontrollers for automobiles, including 4-bit MCUs for in-car entertainment, automatic wipers, electronic locks, and dashboard, and 8-bit MCUs for engine control.^[788]
  • DMA controller — Dates back to the Intel 8257 (1976) designed by Masatoshi Shima.^[789]
  • Digital signal processor (DSP) — The NEC μPD7720, released in 1980, was the first commercial DSP chip.^[790]
  • Compressed instruction set — Originally developed by Hitachi for their SuperH (SH) series of central processing unit (CPU) microprocessors, introduced in 1992.^[791][792]
  • Glass CPU — Shunpei Yamazaki invented an integrated circuit chip made entirely from glass and with an 8-bit central processing unit.^[628]
• Parametron — Eiichi Goto invented the parametron in 1954 as an alternative to the vacuum tube. Early Japanese computers used parametrons until they were superseded by transistors.^[793]
  • Quantum flux parametron — Eiichi Goto invented the quantum flux parametron in 1986 using superconducting Josephson junctions on integrated circuits as an improvement over existing parametron technology.^[793]
• Personal computer with hard disk drive — The Sord M200 Smart Home Computer came with a built-in hard disk drive in 1977.^[776]
  • Personal computer with laserdisc player — The Pioneer Palcom, a 1984 MSX computer by Pioneer Corporation, was the first personal computer sold with an optional laserdisc player.^[794]
  • Personal computer with optical disk drive — Fujitsu's FM Towns, released in February 1989, was the first personal computer sold with a built-in CD-ROM drive.^[795]
• Personal digital assistant (PDA) with OLED — The Sony CLIÉ PEG-VZ90, released in 2004, was the first PDA to feature an OLED display.^[796]
• Pocket computer — The first pocket computer was the Sharp PC-1211, introduced in March 1980 by Sharp Corporation.^[797][798]
• Programmable interrupt controller (PIC) — The first PIC was the Intel 8259 (1976),^[799] designed by Masatoshi Shima.^[789]
  • Programmable interval timer (PIT) — Dates back to the Intel 8253 (1975) designed by Masatoshi Shima.^[789]
  • Universal synchronous and asynchronous receiver-transmitter (USART) — Dates back to the Intel 8251 (1976) designed by Masatoshi Shima.^[789]
• Plastic CPU — Shunpei Yamazaki invented a central processing unit (CPU) chip made entirely from plastic.^[628]
• Standardized computer architecture — The first attempt at a standardized computer architecture was the MSX, introduced by ASCII Corporation and Microsoft Japan in 1983.^[800]
• Stored-program transistor computer — The ETL Mark III began development in 1954,^[801] and was completed in 1956, created by the Electrotechnical Laboratory.^[802] It was the first stored-program transistor computer.^{[802][803][804]}
• Switching circuit theory — From 1934 to 1936, NEC engineer Akira Nakashima introduced switching circuit theory in a series of papers showing that two-valued Boolean algebra can describe the operation of switching circuits.^{[604][605][606][805]}
• Text-to-speech (TTS) — Noriko Umeda et al. developed the first general English text-to-speech system in 1968, at the Electrotechnical Laboratory in Japan.^[806]
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) — The USB standard was co-developed by NEC in 1996.^[807]

Domestic appliances

See also: Electronics industry in Japan

Electric rice cooker

• Bladeless fan — The first bladeless fan was patented by Toshiba in 1981.^[808]
• Bread machine — The bread machine was developed and released in Japan in 1986 by the Matsushita Electric Industrial Company.
• Electric rice cooker — Invented by designers at the Toshiba Corporation in the late 1940s.^[809]
• RFIQin — An automatic cooking device, invented by Mamoru Imura and patented in 2007.^[810][811]
• Ductless air conditioner (AC) — In 1961, the first ductless AC was a mini-split AC sold by Toshiba. In 1968, the first wall-mounted mini‑split AC was sold by Mitsubishi.^{[812][813][814]}
  • Cross-flow fan — In 1968, Mitsubishi's mini-split AC was the first air conditioner with a cross-flow fan.^[812][814]
  • Ductless multi-split AC — Multi-zone ductless systems were invented by Daikin in 1973. It was first sold in Japan.^[815]
  • Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) — VRF systems (which can be thought of as larger multi-split systems) were invented by Daikin in 1982. It was first sold in Japan.^[815]
• Inverter air conditioner (AC) — Created by Toshiba in 1981 as an alternative to the standard home window air conditioner. With the difference being in the compressor that is able to cool or warm a room to the intended temperature as quickly as possible while efficiently maintaining the desired temperature unlike standard AC units in which the compressor frequently turns off. Inverter AC units do not turn off only operating at a certain consistent speed while also being able to adjust its regularity.^[816]
• Microwave oven with turntable — Between 1964 and 1966, Sharp Corporation introduced the first microwave oven with a turntable, an alternative means to promote more even heating of food.^[817]
  • Sensor microwave oven — In 1979, Sharp introduced the first microwave oven incorporating sensor and microcomputer technology.^[101][818]
  • Smart microwave oven — In 1999, Sharp introduced the RE-M210, the first Internet-capable microwave oven. It allowed users to download recipes and heating instructions from the Internet.^[739]
• Plasma air purifier — Sharp's Plasmacluster, developed between 1998 and 2000, was the first plasma air purifier.^[819][722]
• Stainless steel vacuum bottle — Nippon Sanso and Honda invented the first stainless steel vacuum flask with a double-layer structure and without glass. The product was launched in 1978.^[820]
• Washlet — Toto began development in 1978.^[821] In 1980, Toto introduced the Washlet G, which debuted with three functions: rear cleansing, dryer, and a heated seat.^[822]

Memory and storage

See also: Semiconductor industry in Japan

Toshiba SD card, a type of flash memory card.

• 3.5 inch floppy disk — Pioneered by Sony in 1981.^[823]
• Compact Disc (CD) — The compact disc was jointly developed by Sony (Toshitada Doi) and Philips (Joop Sinjou). 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.^[824]
  • CD-ROM — Sony and Philips created the technical standard that defines the format of a CD-ROM in 1983.^[825] The CD-ROM was introduced by Sony and Denon at the first Japanese COMDEX computer show in early 1985.^[826]
  • GD-ROM — A proprietary optical disc format developed as a collaboration between Sega and Yamaha for the Dreamcast (1998) and other Sega systems.^[827]
• DVD — The DVD, first developed in 1995, resulted from a cooperation between three Japanese companies (Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic) and one Dutch company (Philips).
  • DVD recordable (DVD-R) — The DVD-R format was developed by Pioneer in 1997.^[828]
  • DVD recorder — The first DVD recorder was released by Pioneer in 1999.^[828]
  • HD DVD — Introduced by Toshiba in 2006.^[829]
  • Blu-ray Disc (BD) — After Shuji Nakamura's invention of practical blue laser diodes,^[830] 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.^[831] The Blu-ray Disc Association was founded by nine companies: five from Japan, two from South Korea, one Netherlands, and one France. The format was launched in 2006.
• Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) — In 1965, Toshiba introduced bipolar dynamic RAM (DRAM) for electronic calculator Toscal BC-1411.^{[832][833][834]}
  • Synchronous Graphics RAM (SGRAM) — Introduced with the Hitachi HM5283206, an 8 Mbit SGRAM chip that debuted in November 1994.^[835]
• EEPROM — ETL began research in 1971,^[836] fabricating an electrically re-programmable non-volatile memory in 1972.^{[837][838][839]}
• Flash memory — Flash memory (both NOR and NAND types) was invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka while working for Toshiba circa 1980.^[840][841]
  • Charge trap flash (CTF) — In 1991, NEC researchers including N. Kodama, K. Oyama and Hiroki Shirai developed a type of flash memory that incorporated a charge trap method.^[842]
  • V-NAND — V-NAND (vertical NAND), also known as 3D NAND, stacks NAND flash memory cells vertically within a chip using 3D charge trap flash (CTP) technology. V-NAND technology was introduced by Toshiba in 2007.^[843]
• Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) — In 1992, Sony introduced the MiniDisc. Recordable MiniDiscs used HAMR, but the discs were read optically via the Kerr effect.^[844] In 2006, Fujitsu demonstrated the first HAMR hard disk drive.^[845]
• Holographic data storage — In 1975, Hitachi introduced a video disc system in which chrominance, luminance and sound information are encoded holographically. It had a capacity of 54,000 frames.^[846]
• LD-ROM — In 1984, Sony introduced a laserdisc format designed to store digital data, with a capacity of 3.28 GB.^[847]
• Memory card — In 1985, the earliest memory card formats were the Bee Card and Astron SoftCard for the MSX,^[848] and the Sega Card for the SG-1000 and Master System.^[255]
  • SD card — The Secure Digital (SD) memory card format was jointly developed in 1999 by Panasonic (then known as Matsushita), Kioxia (then part of Toshiba) and SanDisk.^[849][850]
• Minidisc — In 1992, Sony introduced the MiniDisc (MD), a music recording and playback format intended to replace audio cassettes.^[844]
• Optical disc drive — The first erasable optical disc drives were announced in 1983, by Matsushita,^[851] Sony, and Kokusai Denshin Denwa.^[852]
• Quad-level cell (QLC) — NEC demonstrated QLC in 1996, with flash memory storing 2 bits per cell. In 1997, NEC demonstrated DRAM with QLC cells.^[853] In 2009, Toshiba and SanDisk introduced NAND flash memory with QLC, storing 4 bits per cell.^[854][855]
  • Triple-level cell (TLC) — Toshiba introduced NAND flash memory chips with triple-level cells (TLC) in 2009.^[854]
• Perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) — In 1976, Dr. Shun-ichi Iwasaki (president of the Tohoku Institute of Technology) verified the distinct density advantages in perpendicular recording. Then in 1978, Dr. T. Fujiwara began an intensive research and development program at the Toshiba Corporation that eventually resulted in the perfection of floppy disk media optimized for perpendicular recording and the first commercially available magnetic storage devices using the technique.^[856] Iwasaki's pioneering work has been integral to the development of modern hard disk drives.^[857]
  • GMR head — In 1997, Toshiba released the first practical hard disk drive (HDD) equipped with a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) disk read-and-write head.^[567]
  • Flux control MAMR (FC-MAMR) — In 2021, Toshiba released the first flux control microwave-assisted magnetic recording (FC-MAMR) hard disk drive.^[858]
• Three-dimensional memory chip — In 1969, a 3D IC memory chip was proposed by NEC.^[636] TSV was used to fabricate a 3-layer memory chip at Tohoku University in 2000.^[859]

Music instruments

Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer (1980), the first fully programmable drum machine and one of the most influential inventions in popular music.

• Analog modeling synthesizer — The Roland D-50 from 1987 was the first virtual analog synthesizer.^[860]
  • Linear arithmetic synthesis (LA synthesis) — Invented by Roland for the D-50 synthesizer (1987).^[861]
  • Supersaw — A waveform created by Roland for its JP-8000 (1996) analog modeling synthesizer.^[862][863]
• Bass synthesizer–sequencer — The first was Firstman SQ-01,^[864][865] released in 1980 by Japanese company Hillwood/Firstman.^{[866][867][868]}
  • Acid bass — Acid house music was characterized by the distinctive squelching basslines of the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer-sequencer.^[869]

• Chorus pedal — The Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble, released by Boss Corporation in 1976, was the first chorus pedal.^[870]
• CV/gate — This method was widely used in the epoch of analog modular synthesizers and CV/Gate music sequencers, since the introduction of the Roland MC-8 Microcomposer in 1977 through to the 1980s.^[871]
• Digital Control Bus (DCB) — A proprietary data interchange interface by Roland Corporation, developed in 1981.^[872] It was the basis for MIDI.^[873]
• Digital piano — Yamaha released the first digital pianos,^[874] starting with the Yamaha GS-1 (1980).^[875]
  • Digital piano sound module — The Roland MKS-20 (1986) was a digital piano MIDI module, using Roland's "structured/adaptive synthesis" (SAS) for more realistic piano sounds.^[876]
• Digital synthesizer — Yamaha built the first prototype digital synthesizer in 1974.^[877]
  • FM synthesizer — Yamaha adapted FM synthesis for a commercial synthesizer, adding improvements.^[878][879] Yamaha built the first prototype FM synthesizer in 1974.^[877]
  • Phase distortion synthesis (PD) — Invented by Casio for its Casio CZ-101 digital synthesizer in 1984.^[880]
• Direct-drive turntable — Invented by Shuichi Obata, an engineer at Matsushita (now Panasonic),^[881] based in Osaka.^[882] In 1969, Matsushita released it as the SP-10, the first in their influential Technics series of turntables.^[883] The Technics SL-1100, released in 1971, was adopted by early hip hop DJs for turntablism,^[883] and the SL-1200 is still widely used by dance and hip hop DJs.^[882]
• Electronic drum — In 1964, Ikutaro Kakehashi developed the first fully transistorized electronic drum instrument, the R1 Rhythm Ace, which was exhibited in 1964. It was manually hand-operated like modern electronic drum pads.^[884][885]
  • Microprocessor programmable drum machine — In 1978, the Roland CR-78 was the first microprocessor‑based programmable rhythm machine.^[886]
  • Fully programmable drum machine — The Roland TR-808, also known as the 808, introduced by Roland in 1980, was the first fully programmable drum machine. It was the first drum machine with the ability to program an entire percussion track from beginning to end, complete with breaks and rolls.^[887] Created by Ikutaro Kakehashi, the 808 has been fundamental to hip hop music and electronic dance music since the 1980s,^[888] making it one of the most influential inventions in popular music.^[889][890]
• Groovebox — The Roland MC-202, released in 1983, has been described as the original groovebox.^[891]
• Guitar synthesizer — Roland GR-500 (1977), manufactured by Roland and FujiGen, is considered the first guitar synthesizer^[892] or first polyphonic guitar synthesizer.^[893]
• MIDI — Roland's Ikutaro Kakehashi proposed developing a standardized means of synchronizing electronic musical instruments in 1981.^[894] Roland's Digital Control Bus (DCB) was used as a basis.^[873] The MIDI specification was published in 1983.^[894]
  • MIDI drum machine — In 1983, the first MIDI drum machine was the Roland TR-909.^[895][896]
  • MIDI music sequencer — In 1983, the first MIDI music sequencer was the Roland MSQ-700.^[897]
  • MIDI sound card — Roland Corporation's MPU-401, released in 1984, was the first MIDI-equipped sound card, capable of MIDI sound processing and sequencing.^[898][899]
  • MIDI synthesizer — In 1983, the first MIDI synthesizers were the Roland Jupiter-6 and Prophet 600.^[895]
  • General MIDI — Standardized in 1991 by the Japan MIDI Standards Committee (JMSC) and MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA).^[900]
• Music computer — The Yamaha CX5M, based on the MSX standard and introduced in 1983, was the first dedicated music computer.^[901][902]
• Music Macro Language (MML) — The first commands for classical MML appeared on the Sharp MZ-80K computer,^[903] made by Sharp Corporation in 1978.^[904]

• PCM digital sampler — Toshiba's LMD-649 (1981) was an early digital sampler that played and recorded PCM samples.^[905]
• Phaser effects pedal — In 1968, Shin-ei's Uni-Vibe effects pedal, designed by audio engineer Fumio Mieda, incorporated phase shift and chorus effects, soon becoming favorite effects of guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower.^[906]
• Physical modelling synthesis — The first commercially available physical modelling synthesizer was Yamaha's VL-1 in 1994.^[907]
• Polyphonic string synthesizer — Roland Corporation released early polyphonic string synthesizers, RS-101 in 1975 and RS-202 in 1976.^[908][868]
• Polyphonic synthesizer with digital keyboard scanning — In the early 1970s, Yamaha developed polyphonic synthesizers with voice allocation technology and digital keyboard scanning. The Yamaha GX-1 (1973) used voice allocation technology.^[909]
• Sound module — In 1983, the Yamaha SFG-01 sound module introduced FM synthesis and MIDI sequencing to the MSX.^[910][911] The same year, the Roland CMU-800 sound module introduced music synthesis and sequencing to other computers.^[912][913]
  • Multi-timbral MIDI sound module — The Roland MT-32 (1987) was the first multi-timbral MIDI sound module, using Roland's LA synthesis technology. It was commonly used in computer music, especially computer game music.^[914]
• Vowel–consonant synthesis — A type of hybrid digital-analog synthesis first employed by the early Casiotone keyboards in the early 1980s.

Nanotechnology

A "sliced and unrolled" representation of a carbon nanotube as a strip of a graphene molecule.

• Carbon nanofiber (CNF) — Discovered by Morinobu Endo in the early 1970s.^[915]
• Carbon nanotube (CNT) — Discovered by Morinobu Endo in 1976.^[916][915]
  • Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) — Discovered by Sumio Iijima of NEC in 1991.^[917]

• Nanoelectronics — Nanoelectronic devices have critical dimensions between 1 nm and 100 nm.^[918] 16 nm PMOS transistor was demonstrated by NEC in September 1996.^[919]
  • Nanoscale transistor — In 1996, NEC's research team including Hisao Kawaura, Toshitsugu Sakamoto and Toshio Baba demonstrated a 16 nm PMOS transistor.^[919]
• Nanotechnology — Tokyo University of Science professor Norio Taniguchi was the first to use the term "nano-technology" in a 1974 conference.^{[920][921][922]} In the 1970s, Morinobu Endo discovered carbon nanofibers^[915] and carbon nanotubes.^[916]

Printing

Timelapse of a three-dimensional printer in action

• 3D printing — In 1981, Hideo Kodama of Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute invented two additive methods for fabricating three-dimensional plastic models with photo-hardening thermoset polymer, where the UV exposure area is controlled by a mask pattern or a scanning fiber transmitter.^[923][924]
• Desktop laser printer — Japanese company Canon developed in 1979 the Canon LBP-10, a low-cost desktop laser printer. Canon then began work on a much-improved print engine, the Canon CX, resulting in the LBP-CX printer.^[925][926]
• Digital printing — The first compact, lightweight digital printer was the EP-101, invented by Japanese company Epson and released in 1968.^{[927][928][929]}
• Hydrographics — Hydrographics, also known variously as immersion printing, water transfer printing, water transfer imaging, hydro dipping, or cubic printing has an somewhat fuzzy history. Three different Japanese companies are given credit for its invention. Taica Corporation claims to have invented cubic printing in 1974. However, the earliest hydrographic patent was filed by Motoyasu Nakanishi of Kabushiki Kaisha Cubic Engineering in 1982.^[930]
• Inkjet printing — Inkjet printing technology was first extensively developed in the early 1950s. While working at Canon in Japan, Ichiro Endo suggested the idea for a "bubble jet" printer.^[931]
• Ise katagami — The use of stencils was known by the Nara period, as is evident from objects in the Shōsōin.^[932] Later paper stencils developed alongside kimono.^[933] The technique is known as ise katagami.^[933]
  • Screen printing — Screen printing originates from Japanese Ise katagami, in turn influenced by block printing from China.^[934]
• Serial impact dot matrix printer — In 1968, Oki introduced the first serial impact dot matrix printer (SIDM), the Oki Wiredot. It supported a character generator for 128 characters with a print matrix of 7 × 5.^{[935][936][937]}

Robotics

See also: Japanese robotics

DER-01, a Japanese actroid (an android intended to be very visually similar to humans)

• Android — Waseda University initiated the WABOT project in 1967, and in 1972 completed the WABOT-1, the world's first full-scale humanoid intelligent robot.^[938] Its limb control system allowed it to walk with the lower limbs, and to grip and transport objects with hands, using tactile sensors. Its vision system allowed it to measure distances and directions to objects using external receptors, artificial eyes and ears. And its conversation system allowed it to communicate with a person in Japanese, with an artificial mouth. This made it the first android.^[939][940]
• Actroid — 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.^{[941][942][943]}
• Giant boarding robot — Kuratas, revealed in 2012, was described as the first giant boarding robot, modelled after the mechs from mecha anime and manga.^[944]
• Micro robot — NEC's ARMS-D, introduced in 1981, was the first industrial robot with micrometre level precision, enabled by NEC 8085 microprocessor technology.^[945]
  • Industrial robot with linear motor — NEC's ARMS-D (1981) was the first industrial robot to use linear motors.^[945]
• Karakuri puppet — Karakuri puppets (からくり人形, karakuri ningyō) are traditional Japanese mechanized puppets or automata, originally made from the 17th century to the 19th century. The word karakuri means "mechanisms" or "trick".^[946] The dolls' gestures provided a form of entertainment. Three main types of karakuri exist. Butai karakuri (舞台からくり, stage karakuri) were used in theatre. Zashiki karakuri (座敷からくり, tatami room karakuri) were small and used in homes. Dashi karakuri (山車からくり, festival car karakuri) were used in religious festivals, where the puppets were used to perform reenactments of traditional myths and legends.
• Robotic exoskeleton for motion support (medicine) — The first HAL prototype was proposed by Yoshiyuki Sankai, a professor at Tsukuba University.^[947] Fascinated with robots since he was in the third grade, Sankai had striven to make a robotic suit in order "to support humans". In 1989, after receiving his Ph.D. in robotics, he began the development of HAL. Sankai spent three years, from 1990 to 1993, mapping out the neurons that govern leg movement. It took him and his team an additional four years to make a prototype of the hardware.^[948]
• Running humanoid robot — Sony's QRIO (2003) was the first humanoid robot capable of running.^[949]
• Toy robot arm — Tomy's Armatron, introduced in 1982, was the first toy robot arm, moved by dual analog control joysticks. It had a significant influence on the development of modern robotics and artificial intelligence.^[950]
• Wind-up toy robot — Lilliput, a Japanese robot introduced in 1932, was the first wind-up toy robot.^[951]

Television and displays

See also: Television in Japan

A recreation of Kenjiro Takayanagi's pioneering television experiment (1926), on display at the NHK Broadcasting Museum in Atagoyama, Tokyo.

• Active shutter 3D system — Matsushita Electric developed a 3D television that employed active-shutter stereoscopic technology in the late 1970s, unveiled in 1981, while adapting the technology for the first stereoscopic video game, SubRoc-3D (1982).^[343]
  • 3D HDTV — In the 1998 Nagano Olympics, some sporting events were filmed in 3D high definition.^[326]
  • Autostereoscopy — A prototype single-viewer display, the Floating Image System, was presented by Sega AM3 in 1997.^[344] In the early 2000s, Sharp released electronic parallax barrier flat-panels, selling laptops with the first 3D LCD screens.^[952]
• All-electronic television (TV) — In 1926, Kenjiro Takayanagi invented the world's first all-electronic television, preceding Philo T. Farnsworth by several months.^[953] By 1927, Takayanagi improved the resolution to 100 lines, which was not surpassed until 1931.^[954] By 1928, he was the first to transmit human faces in halftones. His work had an influence on the later work of Vladimir K. Zworykin.^[955]
  • Transistor TV — In 1952, Sony's Masaru Ibuka predicted that transistors would lead to more portable TV sets.^[956] The first fully transistorized, portable solid-state TV set was the Sony TV8-301, developed in 1959 and released in 1960.^[957][958]
  • Automatic fine tuning (AFT) — In 1969, Toshiba released the first color TV with AFT integrated circuit technology.^[567]
  • Integrated circuit color TV — In 1969, Toshiba released an early color TV incorporating an integrated circuit (IC) chip. In 1971, they released the first color TV with mostly IC chips.^[567]
• Cathode ray tube TV (CRT TV) — In 1926, Kenjiro Takayanagi demonstrated a CRT TV with 40 scanlines.^[959] By 1927, he improved the display resolution to 100 lines.^[954] By 1928, he transmitted human faces in half-tones on a CRT display.^[955]
  • Aperture grille — One of two major cathode ray tube (CRT) display technologies, along with the older shadow mask. Aperture grille was introduced by Sony with their Trinitron television in 1968.^[960]
  • High definition CRT (HD CRT) — In 1990, the first CRT with HD resolution, the Sony KW-3600HD, was released to the market.^[961][962]
  • Surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) — Canon began SED research in 1986.^[963] In 2004, Canon and Toshiba continued development of SED technology, with demonstrations at trade shows in 2006.^[964]
• Color plasma display — The world's first color plasma display was produced by Fujitsu in 1989.^[965]
• Digital television (DTV) — In the mid-1980s, Toshiba released a TV set with digital capabilities. In 1986, Sony and NEC released TV sets with digital capabilities. These early digital TV sets converted analog TV signals into digital video signals.^[966][967]
  • DTV broadcast — Proposed in 1986 by NTT and MPT, as part of the Integrated Network System (INS).^[968] In 1989, improved-definition television (IDTV) used digital electronics to improve NTSC picture quality in Japan.^[969]
• Enhanced-definition television (EDTV) — Nippon TV (NTV) began broadcasting Clear-Vision (EDTV) in 1989 and Wide Clear Vision (widescreen EDTV) in 1995.^[970]
• Handheld television — In 1970, Panasonic released the first television that was small enough to fit in a large pocket, the Panasonic IC TV MODEL TR-001. It featured a 1.5-inch display, along with a 1.5-inch speaker.^[971]
• High-definition television (HDTV) — NHK began researching HDTV in 1964.^[969] Between 1968 and 1969, NHK STRL developed a Hi-Vision analog HDTV prototype, demonstrated in 1969.^[613][326] In 1974, Panasonic publicly demonstrated the first HD TV set, with a 1125i display resolution.^[972]
  • HD display monitor — Introduced with the Sony HDVS (High Definition Video System) in 1981.^[973]
  • High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) — In 2002, the HDMI founders included Hitachi, Panasonic, Maxell, Sony and Toshiba.^[974]
• High-definition video projector (HD) — Introduced with the Sony HDVS in 1981.^[973]
  • Ultra HD video projector (UHD) — An early UHD video projector was developed by NHK and JVC researchers in 2003.^[753]
• Interactive TV — Between 1975 and 1977, Pioneer Electronics developed Qube, the first two-way addressable, interactive cable TV system.^{[975][976][977]}
• Large-screen television technology (video wall) — In 1980, Mitsubishi Electric introduced the first large-scale video board,^[978] the Diamond Vision, which was a large screen using cathode-ray tube (CRT) technology.^[979]
  • Jumbotron — Introduced by Sony at the Expo '85 held in May 1985 at Tsukuba, Ibaraki.^[980]
• Laser TV — World's first HD laser TV was produced by Mitsubishi Electric in 2008.^[981]
• LCD television (LCD TV) — The first LCD televisions were invented as handheld televisions in Japan. In 1980, Hattori Seiko's R&D group began development on color LCD pocket televisions.^[982] In 1982, Seiko Epson released the first LCD television, the Epson TV Watch, a wristwatch equipped with an active-matrix LCD television.^[983][770] In 1983, Casio released a handheld LCD television, the Casio TV-10.^[984]
  • Color TFT LCD — In 1983, a-Si TFT color LCD panels were demonstrated by Canon, Sanyo and Sanritsu.^[985] In 1984, the first commercial color TFT LCD TVs were released, with Epson's ET-10^[986] and Citizen Watch's Citizen Pocket TV.^[982][987]
  • Color LCD projector — The Epson VPJ-700, released in January 1989, was the first compact color LCD projector.^[988]

• LED-backlit LCD — The world's first LED-backlit LCD television was Sony's Qualia 005, released in 2004.^[989]
  • Quantum dot LED (QLED) — The first manufacturer shipping QLED TVs was Sony in 2013 as Triluminos, Sony's trademark for the technology.^[990]

Sony XEL-1, the world's first OLED TV.

• OLED display — Manufacturing of OLED displays began in 1997 by Pioneer Corporation, followed by TDK in 2001.^[991]
  • OLED TV — In 2007, the Sony XEL-1 was the world's first OLED TV.^[992]
  • OLED head-mounted display (HMD) — Sony's HMZ-T1 (2011) was the first 3D HMD equipped with a HD OLED display.^[993]
• On-screen display (OSD) — In 1972, Sharp Corporation introduced the first television set to display a television channel number on the corner of the screen.^[994][101]
  • Picture-in-picture (PIP) — In 1978, Sharp's CT-1804X was the first TV that could display two programs at once on the same screen.^[995]
• SAW TV receiver — In 1977, Toshiba produced the first surface acoustic wave (saw) device for TV receivers.^[567]
• See-through display — An early commercial transparent display was the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness, released in 2009.^[996]
• Seven-segment vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) — The first multi-segment VFD was a 1967 Japanese single-digit, seven‑segment device made by Ise Electronics Corporation.^[997]
• Smart TV — In the early 1980s, intelligent television receivers were introduced in Japan. LSI chips with memory and character generator enabled Japanese viewers to receive a mix of programming and information transmitted over television signals.^[998]
• S-Video — The S-Video cable standard was introduced in 1987 with JVC's S-VHS format.^[999]
• Ultra-high-definition television (UHDTV) — In 1995, NHK began research and development on UHDTV technology.^[1000] In the early 2000s, NHK and JVC researchers developed an early UHDTV prototype, which they demonstrated in 2003.^[753]
  • 8K resolution UHDTV — Japan's public broadcaster NHK was the first to start research and development of 4320p resolution in 1995 and the format was first displayed in 2005.^[1001]
• Widescreen television — In 1970, NHK proposed a widescreen HDTV television system.^[1002] The first commercial widescreen TVs were released for the Japanese market in 1992.^[1003]

Textiles

See also: Japanese craft

• Automatic power loom with non-stop shuttle-change motion — Sakichi Toyoda invented numerous weaving devices. His most famous invention was the automatic power loom in which he implemented the principle of Jidoka (autonomation or autonomous automation). It was the 1924 Toyoda Automatic Loom, Type G, a completely automatic high-speed loom featuring the ability to change shuttles without stopping and dozens of other innovations. At the time it was the world's most advanced loom, delivering a dramatic improvement in quality and a twenty-fold increase in productivity.This loom automatically stopped when it detected a problem such as thread breakage.^[1004]
• Vinylon — The second man-made fiber to be invented, after nylon. It was first developed by Ichiro Sakurada, H. Kawakami, and Korean scientist Ri Sung-gi at the Takatsuki chemical research center in 1939 in Japan.^[1005][1006]

Timekeeping

See also: Japanese clock

2A Seiko quartz wristwatch using the chronograph function (movement 7T92)

• Myriad year clock — The Myriad year clock (万年自鳴鐘 Mannen Jimeishou, lit. Ten-Thousand Year Self-ringing Bell), was a universal clock designed by the Japanese inventor Hisashige Tanaka in 1851. It belongs to the category of Japanese clocks called Wadokei.^[1007]
• Quartz wristwatch — The world's first quartz wristwatch was revealed in 1967: the prototype of the Astron revealed by Seiko in Japan, where it was in development since 1958. It was eventually released to the public in 1969.^[1008]
  • Automatic quartz — The first watch to combine self-winding with a crystal oscillator for timekeeping was unveiled by Seiko in 1986.^[1009]
• Spring Drive — A watch movement which was first conceived by Yoshikazu Akahane working for Seiko in 1977 and was patented in 1982. It features a true continuously sweeping second hand, rather than the traditional beats per time unit, as seen with traditional mechanical and most quartz watches.^[1010]
• Smartwatch — In the 1980s, Seiko began to develop computers in the form of watches, starting with the Data 2000 watch,^[1011] released in 1984.^[1012] It was followed by Seiko Epson's RC-1000 Wrist Terminal (1984), able to interface with a computer.^[1011]
• Television watch — The world's first television watch, the TV-Watch, was developed by Seiko in 1982.^[1013]

Video

Sony's U-matic cassette recorder tape

Betamax (top) and VHS (bottom) tapes were respectively created by Japanese companies Sony and JVC.

• Digital video disc — In 1972, TOSBAC was using digital video disks to display color digital images.^[1014] In 1995, DVD co-developed in 1995 by Sony Toshiba and Panasonic.
  • DVD player — The first DVD player was released by Toshiba in November 1996.^[1015]
  • Video CD — The Video CD standard was created in 1993 by JVC, Sony, Matsushita and Philips.^[1016]

• Helical scan — Norikazu Sawazaki invented a helical scan video tape recorder (VTR) in 1953.^[1017] In 1959, Toshiba released the first commercial helical scan VTR.^[1018]
  • Transistor video tape recorder (VTR) — Sony's SV-201 (1961) was the first transistor-based VTR.^[1019]
  • Videocassette recorder (VCR) — The first machines (the VP-1100 videocassette player and the VO-1700 videocassette recorder) to use the first videocassette format, U-matic, were introduced by Sony in 1971.^[1020]
  • Betamax — Betamax was an analog videocassette magnetic tape marketed to consumers released by Sony on May 10, 1975.^[1021]
  • VHS — The VHS (Video Home System) was invented in 1973 by Yuma Shiraishi and Shizuo Takano who worked for JVC.^[1022]
• High-definition video (HD) — In 1981, the Sony HDVS (High Definition Video System) introduced new HD video equipment based on the Hi-Vision standard. They included:^[973]
  • HD video camera
  • HD video tape — HD U-matic tape.^[973]
  • HD video tape recorder
• High-definition video disc — The first HD video disc format was MUSE LD (Hi-Vision LD), developed by Matsushita, Pioneer, Sanyo, Sony and Toshiba in 1991.^[1023]
• H.261 — The majority of patents for H.261 (1988) were from Japanese companies, including Hitachi, NTT, Toshiba, KDDI, Sony, Sharp, Oki and Matsushita.^[1024]
  • AVC (H.264) — The majority of patents for AVC (2003) were from Japanese companies, including Panasonic, Godo Kaisha, Toshiba, NTT, Sony and Fujitsu.^[1025][1026]
  • HEVC (H.265) — Japanese companies that contributed patents towards HEVC (2013) include NTT, JVC, NEC, Canon, Fujitsu, Maxell and NHK.^[1027][1028]
  • VVC (H.266) — Japanese companies that contributed patents towards VVC (2020) include NTT, Godo Kaisha, JVC, KDDI, Mitsubishi, NEC, Panasonic and Fujitsu.^[1029]
• Inter-frame motion compensation (MC) — In 1959, the concept of inter-frame motion compensation was proposed by NHK researchers Y. Taki, M. Hatori and S. Tanaka, who proposed predictive inter-frame video coding in the temporal dimension.^[1030]
  • AV1 — Japanese companies that contributed patents towards the development of the AV1 video coding format, released in 2018, include NTT and Toshiba.^[1031]
  • VC-1 — Japanese companies that contributed patents towards the VC-1 video coding format include Panasonic, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Sony, JVC Kenwood, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Sharp Corporation, and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone.^[1032]
• MPEG-1 — Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) was co-founded by Hiroshi Yasuda.^[1033] Majority of companies that contributed patents for MPEG-1 (1991) were Japanese companies, e.g. Fujitsu, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, NEC, NHK and Pioneer.^[1034]
  • H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 — The majority of patents contributed towards MPEG-2 (1995) were from Japanese companies, including Sony, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, JVC Kenwood, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Canon, KDDI, NTT, Sanyo and Sharp.^[1035]
  • MPEG-4 Visual (H.263) — The majority of patents that contributed towards MPEG-4 Visual (1999) were from Japanese companies, e.g. Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, Sharp, NTT, JVC, Fujitsu, Canon, KDDI, Oki and Sanyo.^[1036]
• Laserdisc player — In February 1979, Pioneer released the first laserdisc (LD) player for business use. In June 1980, Pioneer released the VP-1000 LD player for home use. In December 1996, Pioneer released the first hybrid LD, CD and DVD player.^[1037]
• Ultra-high-definition video disc (UHD) — In 1995, NHK began research and development on UHD video.^[1000] In 2003, NHK and JVC researchers developed a prototype UHD video disc recorder.^[753]
  • 8K resolution video disc — In 1995, NHK began research and development on 8K video.^[1000] In 2003, NHK and JVC researchers developed a prototype 8K video disc recorder.^[753]
• Video Floppy — Video floppy disks were first demonstrated by Sony and introduced under the Mavipak name in 1981 for their prototype Mavica.^[1038]
• Video High Density (VHD) — Video disc format introduced by JVC in 1978.^[1039]

Writing

See also: Japanese writing system

Model B in Pink

• Correction tape — Correction tape was invented in 1989 by the Japanese product manufacturer Seed. It is an alternative to correction fluid.^[1040]
• Gel pen — The gel pen was invented in 1984 by the Sakura Color Products Corporation of Osaka.^[1041]
• Japanese typewriter — The first typewriter to be based on the Japanese writing system was invented by Kyota Sugimoto in 1929.^[1042]
• Japanese writing touch tablet — In 1971, Hitachi's Hidekazu Terai and Kazuo Nakata invented a touch tablet with Japanese writing character recognition for computer use.^[1043]
• Mail sorter with optical character recognition (OCR) — Developed by Toshiba between 1966 and 1967.^[567]
• Rollerball pen — The first rollerball pen was invented in 1963 by the Japanese company Ohto.^[1044]
• Touch tablet word processor — In the 1970s, touch tablet input appeared in the Japanese word processor industry.^[1045] In 1979, Sharp's Shoin WD‑3000 had touch tablet input with a touch pen.^[1046][1045] It was popular from 1980 to 1982.^[1045]

Telecommunication

A thread on 4chan, a popular English language imageboard.

• Caller ID — In May 1976, Kazuo Hashimoto first built a prototype of a caller ID display device that could receive caller ID information. His work on caller ID devices and early prototypes was received in the Smithsonian Institution and National Museum of American History in 2000.^[1047][1048]
• Digital videophone — The first practical videophone for home use was Mitsubishi's Luma 1000 in 1986. It could send digital images over a phone line. By 1988, Sony and NTT had developed their own similar digital videophone for home use.^[1049]
• Fiber-optic communication — Proposed by Jun-ichi Nishizawa in 1963.^[1050] It was made possible by Nishizawa's graded-index optical fiber (1964)^[629][630] and Izuo Hayashi's continuous wave semiconductor laser (1970).^[634]
• Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) — NTT's Integrated Services Network (INS), also called INS-Net, was the world's first large-scale commercial ISDN. After field tests from 1984 to 1987, NTT launched INS-Net in 1988.^[1051]
  • Broadband fibre-optic network — In 1986, INS was planned to be a national high‑capacity fibre-optic network supporting a range of broadband services in Japan.^[1052]

• Textboard — Textboards like imageboards were invented in Japan. However, unlike imageboards, textboards are relatively unknown outside Japan.^[1053]
  • Imageboard — The first imageboards were created in Japan. Later imageboards such as 2chan would be created.^[1053]
• Video on demand (VOD) — In 1986, a VOD service was proposed in Japan, when there were plans to develop the Integrated Network System (INS).^[1054] The 1998 Nagano Olympics included the first video-on-demand (VOD) sports coverage.^[326]
• VTuber — In 2010, Nitroplus uploaded YouTube videos with Super Sonico talking to the audience about herself and company releases.^[1055]

Mobile phones

See also: Japanese mobile phone culture

J-SH04, released by Sharp Corporation and J-Phone in 2000, was an early camera phone capable of picture messaging.

• Commercial mobile phone — The first commercial mobile phone was the Panasonic TZ‑801, released in 1979. It used NTT's 1G mobile network and was initially only available in Tokyo.^[1056][1057]
  • Camera phone — Olympus DELTIS VC-1100 (1994) was the first digital camera with cell phone capability.^[1058] Kyocera VP-210 was the first commercial camera phone.^[1059]
  • Steroscopic 3D mobile phone — In the early 2000s, Sharp released parallax barrier flat-panels.^[952] The first 3D mobile phone was the Sharp mova SH251iS (2002).^[1060]
  • Autostereoscopic 3D mobile phone — In 2009, Hitachi released the first autostereoscopic 3D phone under KDDI,^[1061][1062] the Hitachi Wooo Ketai H001.^[1063]

• Foldable smartphone — The earliest commercial foldable smartphone was Kyocera's Echo (2011).^[1064][1065]
• Front-facing camera phone — The first front-facing camera phone was the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, released in May 1999.^[1066]
• Mobile network — First commercial cellular network, 1G, was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. The early launch was motivated by an effort to understand a practical cellular system.^[1067][1068]
  • 1G — The first commercial cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo.^[1056][1069]
  • 3G — In 1998, the first pre-commercial 3G network was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan,^[1070] branded as FOMA. In 2001, the first commercial launch of 3G was also by NTT DoCoMo in Japan.^{[1071][1072][1069]}
  • LTE — In 2004, LTE was first proposed by NTT DoCoMo of Japan.^[1073]
  • 4G — In 2004, LTE was first proposed by NTT DoCoMo of Japan.^[1073] In 2007, NTT DoCoMo tested a 4G communication system prototype called VSF-OFCDM and completed a trial.^[1074]

• Mobile videophone — Kyocera's VP-210 Visual Phone (1999) was the first mobile colour videophone, which also doubled as a camera phone for still photos.^[1075][1076]
• Picture messaging (MMS) — Picture messaging was invented in Japan.^[1077] The J-SH04, released by Sharp Corporation and J-Phone in 2000, could instantly transmit pictures via cell phone telecommunication.^[1078]
• Ringtone — In September 1996, IDO sold Digital Minimo D319 by Denso. It was the first mobile phone where a user could input an original melody, rather than having to use preloaded melodies. These phones proved to be popular in Japan.^[1079]
  • Polyphonic ringtone — Polyphonic ringtone technology dates back to 1999, when the Yamaha MA-1 sound chip was introduced, including four 2-op FM synthesis channels.^[1080]
• Smartphone — NTT's i-mode (1999) was a mobile internet platform giving phones access to various web services, such as online shopping,^[1081] mobile payments, NFC (mobile wallets), 1seg mobile TV, ringtones, games and comics.^[68][1082]

Wireless

A modern high-gain UHF Yagi television antenna.

• Meteor burst communications — The first observation of interaction between meteors and radio propagation was reported by Hantaro Nagaoka in 1929.^[1083]
• Near-field communication (NFC) — In March 2002, Sony and Philips established a technology specification for NFC and created a technical outline.^[1084]
• Radio-controlled wheel transmitter — Futaba introduced the FP-T2F in 1974. It was the first to use a steering wheel onto a box transmitter.^[1085] KO Propo introduced the EX-1 in 1981. It is one of two types currently for surface use.^[1086][1087]
• Wireless game console — The earliest was the TV Tennis Electrotennis (1975) by Epoch Co. It connected wirelessly to a TV through ultra high frequency (UHF) antenna technology.^[286]
• Wireless outdoor security sensor — In 1983, Japanese company OPTEX developed one of the first wireless outdoor security sensors.^[671]
• Yagi antenna — The Yagi-Uda antenna was invented in 1926 by Shintaro Uda of Tohoku Imperial University, Sendai, Japan, with the collaboration of Hidetsugu Yagi, also of Tohoku Imperial University. Yagi published the first English-language reference on the antenna in a 1928 survey article on short wave research in Japan and it came to be associated with his name. However, Yagi always acknowledged Uda's principal contribution to the design, and the proper name for the antenna is, as above, the Yagi-Uda antenna (or array).^[1088]

Transportation

See also: Transport in Japan

A lineup of JR East Shinkansen bullet trains in October 2012

• Bullet train — The world's first high volume capable (initially 12 car maximum) "high-speed train" was Japan's Tōkaidō Shinkansen, which officially opened in October 1964, with construction commencing in April 1959.^[1089] 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.^[1089]
• Coaxial rotary tiller — Honda's Lucky FU650, launched in 1993, was the first rotary tiller with coaxial rotating tines.^[1090][1091]
• Diesel-powered two-wheel tractor — In 1926, Okayama farmer Nishizaki Hiroshi invented a two-wheel tractor with a diesel powered engine.^[1092]
• Hybrid electric bus — Introduced by Hino Motors in 1991.^[1093]
  • Hybrid electric tour bus — Introduced by Hino Motors in 1997.^[1093]
• Interplanetary solar sail spacecraft — IKAROS the world's first successful interplanetary solar sail spacecraft was launched by JAXA on 21 May 2010.^[1094]
• Inverter-Controlled High-Speed Gearless Elevator — The insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) realized increased switching frequency and reduced magnetic noise in the motor, which eliminated the need for a filter circuit and resulted in a more compact system. The IGBT also allowed the development of a small, highly integrated and highly sophisticated all-digital control device, consisting of the combination of a high-speed processor, specially customized gate arrays, and a circuit capable of controlling large currents of several kHz. Today, the inverter-controlled gearless drive system is applied in high-speed elevators worldwide.^[1095]
• Personal watercraft — Kawasaki were the first to develop stand-up personall watercraft under their trademark Jet Ski. While experimentation with personal watercraft preceded this. The Jet Ski was the first commercially successful and practical PWC.^[1096]
• Rickshaw — A two or three-wheeled passenger cart seating one or two people that serves as a mode of human-powered transport pulled by a runner draws a two-wheeled cart. The rickshaws was invented in Japan around 1869,^[1097][1098] after the lifting of a ban on wheeled vehicles from the Tokugawa period (1603–1868),^[1099] and at the beginning of a rapid period of technical advancement across the Japanese archipelago.^[1098][1100]
• Spiral escalator — Mitsubishi Electric unveiled the world's first practical spiral escalator in 1985. Spiral escalators have the advantage of taking up less space than their conventional counterparts.^[1101]

Automobiles

See also: Automotive industry in Japan

Nissan Altra EV (1997), the first battery electric vehicle (BEV) using lithium-ion batteries.

• 4-wheel steering (4WS) — Mazda were pioneers in applying four-wheel steering to automobiles, showing it on their 1984 Mazda MX-02 concept car, where the rear wheels counter-steered at low speeds.^[1102]
• 5-speed automated manual transmission (AMT) — Isuzu Aska's NAVi5 (1985) introduced the first 5-speed AMT.^[1103]
• 5-valve engine — Mitsubishi Motors were the first to market a car engine with five valves per cylinder, with the 548 cc 3G81 engine in their Minica Dangan ZZ kei car in 1989.^[1104][1105]
• Active exhaust system — Introduced in 1991 by Mitsubishi 3000GT.^[1106]
• Automatic transmission (AT) with parallel axis system — Introduced by the Hondamatic system with the Honda N360 AT (1968). The Hondamatic system is used in most Honda automatic and semi-automatic vehicles.^[1107]
  • 5-speed AT — In 1989, the Jatco 5R01 transmission developed by Jatco and Nissan introduced five-speed AT, used in the Nissan Cedric, Nissan Cefiro, Nissan Gloria, Nissan Skyline and Nissan Laurel.^[1108]
• Battery electric vehicle (BEV) with lithium-ion battery — Nissan's lithium-battery Altra EV miniwagon, introduced in 1997, was notable for being the first production electric vehicle (EV) to use lithium-ion batteries.^[1109][1110]
  • Plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) — The first all-electric PEV was the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, launched in June 2009.^[1111]
  • DC fast charging — The Mitsubishi i-MiEV (2009) was the first electric car with DC fast charging capability.^[1111]
  • Highway-capable electric car — The Mitsubishi i-MiEV (2009) was the world's first modern highway-capable mass production electric car.^[1112][1113]
  • Mass market electric vehicle — The Nissan Leaf, unveiled in August 2009,^[1114] was the world's first mass market electric vehicle.^[1115]
• Cam-shifting VVT — Between 1982 and 1989, Honda's Ikuo Kajitani invented VTEC, a variable valve timing (VVT) technology. The VTEC system uses two (or occasionally three) camshaft profiles and hydraulically selects between profiles.^[1116][1117]
  • VVT diesel engine — In 2010, Mitsubishi Motors developed and started mass production of its 4N13 1.8 L DOHC I4, the world's first passenger car diesel engine that features a VVR system.^[1118][1119]
• Common rail diesel truck — In 1995, the first mass production vehicle with common rail was the Hino Ranger truck, using the ECD-U2 common rail system developed by Denso.^[1120]
• Diesel boxer engine — In 2008, the Subaru EE engine became the world's first passenger car diesel boxer engine. This engine is a turbocharged boxer-four with common rail fuel injection.^{[1121][1122][1123]}
• Dual-clutch transmission truck — In 2010, the Mitsubishi Fuso 6-speed Duonic transmission became the first dual-clutch transmission (DCT) to be used in a truck.^[1124]
• Dual-mass flywheel (DMF) — Introduced with the Toyota Mark II in 1984.^[1125]
• Electric SUV — The Toyota RAV4 EV, developed from 1995 to 1997, was the first electric sport utility vehicle (SUV).^[1126]
• Electronic fuel injection – In 1982, Mazda released the Cosmo RE Turbo, the first car with an electronic fuel injection system.^[1127]
  • Electronic gasoline direct injection (GDI) – Introduced by Mitsubishi Motors in 1995.^[1128]
  • Gasoline direct and indirect injection – The 2005 Toyota 2GR-FSE V6 engine was the first to combine both direct and indirect injection. The system (called "D-4S") has since been used in most Toyota engines.^[1129]
  • Turbocharged GDI – The first turbocharged GDI engine was used in the Mitsubishi Pajero iO 4G93 (2000).^[1130]
• Electronic retractable hardtop convertible – The Toyota Soarer Aero Cabin (1989) had the first self-folding and self-storing metal roof.^[1131]
• Fuel cell electric vehicle (FCV) — The first production FCV was the Hyundai Santa Fe FCEV (2001).^[1132]
  • Hydrogen car — In 2014, Toyota launched the first production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, the Toyota Mirai.^[1133] The Mirai has a range of 312 miles (502 km) and takes about five minutes to refuel. The initial sale price was roughly 7 million yen ($69,000).
• Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) — The first commercial hybrid vehicle was the Toyota Prius launched in 1997.^[1134]
  • Atkinson cycle car engine — The first Atkinson cycle car engine was used in the Toyota Prius (1997).^[1135]
  • Parallel hybrid — The Honda Insight (1999) introduced a parallel hybrid system, Integrated Motor Assist (IMA).^[1136]
  • BAS hybrid — In June 2001, Toyota introduced a BAS (belted alternator starter) hybrid system under the Toyota Hybrid System-Mild (THS-M) brand name.^[1137]
  • Mild hybrid electric vehicle (MHEV) — Introduced with the Toyota Hybrid System-Mild (THS-M) in the Toyota Crown Royal Saloon (2001).^[1138]
• Kei car (mini 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.^[1139][1140]
  • Automatic transmission mini car — Honda N360 AT (1968).^[1107]
• LED headlight — Toyota's Lexus LS 600h L, introduced in 2006, was the first production car with LED headlights, designed for low beam and night use.^[1141][1131]
• Miller cycle car engine — The Mazda Millenia (1993) was the first production car in the world to employ a Miller cycle engine.^[1142][1143]
• Modulated displacement (MD) — In 1982, Mitsubishi developed modulated displacement (MD), a form of variable displacement which proved that the technology, first used in Mitsubishi's 1.4 L 4G12 straight-four engine, can function successfully.^[1144][1145]
• Oxygen storage three-way catalyst — Introduced by Toyota in 1978.^[1146]
  • NO_x adsorber — Introduced by Toyota in 1994.^[1147]
• Rear airbag — In 1993, the Nissan President introduced an SRS airbag for the left-hand side (curbside) rear seat passenger.^[1148]
  • Rear curtain airbag — In 2008, the Toyota iQ microcar featured the first production rear-curtain shield airbag to protect the rear occupants' heads in the event of a rear-end impact.^[1149]
  • Center airbag — In 2009, Toyota developed the first production rear-seat center airbag designed to reduce the severity of secondary injuries to rear passengers in a side collision. This system first appeared on the Crown Majesta.^[1150]
• Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) — The first large-scale SCR was installed by IHI Corporation in 1978.^[1151]
• Self-driving car — The first self-driving car that did not rely upon rails or wires under the road is designed by the Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Laboratory in 1977. The car was equipped with two cameras that used analog computer technology for signal processing.^[1152][1153]
  • Automatic parking — Toyota's Intelligent Parking Assist System (IPAS) is the first production automatic parking system developed in 1999, initially for the hybrid Prius models and Lexus models. It assists drivers in parking a vehicle.^[1154][1155]
• Semi-monocoque car — The Honda NSX (1990) was the first production car to feature an all-aluminium semi-monocoque.^[1156]
• Turbocharged rotary engine — In 1982, Mazda released the Cosmo RE Turbo, the first car with a turbocharged rotary engine.^[1127]
  • Twin-turbo rotary engine — In the 1980s, Mazda pioneered a twin-turbo rotary engine configuration.^[1127]
  • Three-rotor engine — By 1990, Mazda had developed a rotary engine with a three-rotor system.^[1127]
  • Hydrogen rotary engine — By 2006, Mazda had developed a rotary engine running on hydrogen fuel.^[1127]
• Variable-geometry turbocharger — Introduced by the Honda Legend Wing Turbo (1988).^[1157]
• Vehicle emissions control — Pioneered by Mitsubishi MCA (Mitsubishi Clean Air) technology.^[1128] MCA first appeared in January 1973 on the Mitsubishi 4G32A engine and the Saturn-6 6G34 engine in the Mitsubishi Debonair.^[1158][1159]
  • Low emission vehicle (LEV) – The first LEV was the Honda Civic in 1995.^[1160]
  • Ultra-low-emission vehicle (ULEV) – The first ULEV was the Honda Accord in 1997.^[1160]
  • Super ultra-low emission vehicle (SULEV) – The first SULEV was the Honda Accord in 1999.^[1160]
  • Partial zero-emissions vehicle (PZEV) – The first PZEV was the Honda Civic GX in 2001. The first hybrid PZEV was the Honda Civic Hybrid in 2002.^[1160]
  • Zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) — The Nissan Leaf (2009) was the world's first zero-emission vehicle.^[1115]
• Water intercooler — Introduced with the Toyota M-TEU engine in 1983.^[1161]

Automotive electronics

The driver monitoring system (DMS) on Toyota's Lexus LS 600h (2006).

• Adaptive cruise control (ACC) — In 1992, Mitsubishi Motors was the first to offer a lidar-based distance detection system on the Japanese market Debonair.^[1162][1163]
  • Laser ACC — In 1995, Mitsubishi Diamante introduced laser "Preview Distance Control". This system controlled speed through throttle control and downshifting.^[1162][1164]
  • Camera ACC — In 1999, Subaru introduced world's first camera-based ACC on the Subaru Legacy Lancaster.^[1165]
• Advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) — ADAS were first being used in the 1970s with the adoption of the anti-lock braking system (ABS).^[1166] Electronic ABS was introduced in 1971 by Toyota^[1167] and Nissan.^[1168]
  • Active automotive night vision — In 2002, Toyota's Night View was the first worldwide series production active automotive night vision system, introduced on the Toyota Landcruiser Cygnus or Lexus LX470.^[1169][1170]
  • Automotive head-up display (auto-HUD) — In 1988, Nissan was the first manufacturer to offer a HUD with the 1988 Nissan Silvia S13.^[1171]
  • Electrochromic rear-view mirror — Invented by Nissan engineers Harutoshi Miyagi, Masazumi Ishikawa and Yasuyuki Murofushi between 1985 and 1986.^[1172][1173]
  • Lane departure warning system (LDWS) — In 2001, Nissan Motors began offering a lane-keeping support system on the Cima 450XV Limited (F500).^[1174]
  • Parking sensor — Toyota introduced ultrasonic Back Sonar on the 1982 Toyota Corona, offering it until 1988.^[1175]
  • Voice command — In 1982, the Nissan Silvia S110 introduced voice recognition for operating the power windows.^[1176]
  • Voice warning system — In 1980, the Toyota Mark II was the first car with a voice warning system.^[1177]
  • Windshield wiper sensor — In 1983, the Nissan Cedric Y30 and Gloria Y30 introduced the world's first windshield wipers that adjust to changes in rain and snow levels.^[1176]
• Automotive microcomputer — The earliest microcomputer designed for an automobile was developed by Toshiba for Ford's Electronic Engine Control (EEC) in the early 1970s.^[1178]
  • Automotive engine microcomputer — Toshiba developed a close relationship with Ford for the supply of rectifier diodes for automobile AC alternators. In March 1971, Ford unexpectedly sent a set bulky specifications asking Toshiba to join a project to make an Electronic Engine Control in response to US Clean Air Act (sometimes known as the Muskie Act).^[1178] The system began production in 1974.^[783][1179]
  • Fiber-optic communication — Introduced in 1982 with the Toyota Century. It was the first application of fiber-optic communication in an automobile, with optical fibers used to transmit fast signals between microcomputer components.^[1180]
  • Carputer — By 1987, Toyota's Electro Multi Vision for the Toyota Crown was an integrated car computer system with a wide range of features.^[1181] Clarion is credited with introducing the first carputer in December 1998.^[1182]
• Car audio features
  • Component car stereo — In 1975, Pioneer Corporation released the first component car stereo.^[694]
  • Audio control on steering wheel — In 1984, the Nissan 300ZX introduced car radio controls on the steering wheel.^[1183]
  • CD player — In 1984, Pioneer introduced the CDX-1, the first car CD player.^[1184]
  • MP3 player — In 2001, the Mazda Protegé MP3 was the first vehicle to play MP3 files from the CD player.^[1185]
  • 5.1 surround sound — In 2003, Honda's Acura TL was the first car with 5.1 surround sound.^[1186]
  • Active noise cancellation (ANC) — In 2004, Honda's Acura RL was the first car with active noise cancellation.^[1187]

• Collision avoidance system (CAS) — In 2000, Toyota's laser adaptive cruise control (ACC) system added brake control, which applies brakes.^[1177] In February 2003, Toyota launched the Pre-Collision System (PCS) with radar technology in the Harrier.^[1177]
  • Driver monitoring system (DMS) — It was first introduced by Toyota in 2006 for its Lexus models. It was first offered in Japan on the GS 450h. The system's functions co-operate with the pre-collision system (PCS).^[1188]
  • Driver eyelid monitoring system — Introduced in 2008 on the Toyota Crown's Driver Monitoring System.^[1189]
• Electro Multi Vision — Toyota's Electro Multi Vision system was an integrated computer system introduced for the Toyota Soarer in 1985 and then further developed for the Toyota Crown in 1987.^[1181][1190] Electro Multi Vision introduced new features including:
  • CRT digital display panel (1985)^[1190]
  • High resolution user interface with on-board diagnostics (1985)^[1190]
  • Television receiver (1985)^[1190]
  • Video tape recorder (1985)^[1190]
  • CD-ROM drive (1987)^[1181][1191]
  • Hands free car phone (1987)^[1181][1191]
  • Touchscreen interface (1987)^[1181]
• Electronically adjustable suspension dampers — In 1981, the Nissan Skyline Turbo GT-ES introduced the first electronically adjustable suspension shock absorbers.^[1192]
  • Electronically controlled suspension (ECS) — In 1983, the Toyota Soarer introduced the Toyota Electronic Modulated Suspension (TEMS), the first electronically controlled car suspension, using a shock absorber control actuator.^[1193]
  • Semi-active suspension (SAS) — The first production car was the Toyota Soarer with the semi-active TEMS, from 1983.^[1167] In 1985, Nissan introduced ultrasound "Super Sonic Suspension" optionally on the Cedric, Gloria and Laurel.^[1194]
  • Active air suspension — Introduced in 1984 with the Mitsubishi Galant's CECS (Chassis Electronic Control Systems).^[1195]
  • Electronically controlled air suspension (ECAS) — In 1986, the Toyota Soarer had the first electronically controlled full air suspension (spring constant, variable attenuation force) installed.^[1167]
  • Fully active suspension without anti-roll bars: Introduced in 1989 on the Toyota Celica, with the Toyota Active Control Suspension.^[1167]
• Electronic control unit (ECU) — In the early 1970s, the Japanese electronics industry began producing integrated circuits and microcontrollers for controlling engines.^[1196] In 1971, the Toyota Crown introduced electronically controlled anti-skid brakes.^[1167]
  • Engine control unit (ECU) — Toshiba developed the Electronic Engine Control (EEC) for Ford Motor Company. The microprocessor was a 12-bit central processing unit manufactured by Toshiba, the TLCS-12, which began development in 1971 and was completed in 1973. The system began production in 1974, and went into mass production in 1975.^[783][1179]
  • Diesel engine ECU — In August 1982, Toyota introduced a microprocessor-controlled ECU for diesel engines.^[1197]
  • Electronically controlled automated manual transmission (AMT) — Introduced with Isuzu Aska's NAVi5 in 1985.^[1103]
• Electronic anti-lock braking system (ABS) – In 1971, the Toyota Crown introduced ESC (Electronic Skid Control) for anti-skid brakes.^[1167] The same year, the Nissan President introduced EAL (Electro Anti-lock System) developed by Denso.^[1168]
  • Automated emergency braking system (AEBS) – In 2000, Toyota's laser ACC added brake control.^[1177] In May 2003, Honda's Collision Mitigation Brake System (CMBS) on the Inspire was the first AEBS system.^[1198]
  • Brake-by-wire – Electronically controlled brake (ECB) system, developed by Toyota initially for its hybrid and Lexus models, is the first production brake-by-wire braking system.^[1199] ECB was introduced in June 2001.^[1200]
• Electronically controlled continuously variable transmission (ECVT) — In early 1987, Subaru launched the Justy in Tokyo with an ECVT developed by Fuji Heavy Industries, which owns Subaru.^[1201]
  • Toroidal continuously variable transmission (toroidal CVT) – Introduced in 1999 with Toyota's Extroid CVT for the Nissan Cedric (Y34)^[1202][1203] and Nissan Gloria.^[1204]
• Electronic stability control (ESC) – In 1983, a four-wheel electronic "Anti-Skid Control" system was introduced on the Toyota Crown. Toyota introduced their first traction control system (TCS) in 1987 and Vehicle Stability Control (VCS) in 1995.^[1167]
  • Traction control system (TCS) — In 1987, Toyota introduced their first traction control system.^[1167] Modern TCS was introduced by Mitsubishi Motors in 1989.^[1128]
• Pedestrian detection — In 2004, Honda introduced Intelligent Night Vision, the first system with pedestrian detection, on the Honda Legend.^[1205][1206]
  • Active pedestrian avoidance with steering correction – Introduced in 2013 on Toyota's Lexus LS XF40.^[1207]
• Synchronized down shift rev-matching system (SynchroRev Match) — Invented by Nissan in 2008 for use on the Nissan 370Z and Fairlady Z.^[1208]

Motorcycles

Honda CB750 (1969), the first superbike.

• Air bag vest — Honda introduced the first motorcycle airbag system in 2005.^[1209]
• Double cradle frame — The Honda CB750, released in 1969, was the first mass-production motorcycle with a double cradle motorcycle frame.^[1210]
  • Four mufflers — The Honda CB750 (1969) was the first mass-production motorcycle with four mufflers.^[1210]
  • Straight-four SOHC — The Honda CB750 (1969) was the first mass-produced motorcycle with a parallel four-cylinder single overhead camshaft (SOHC) motorcycle engine.^[1211][1210]
  • Superbike — The Honda CB750, released in 1969, was the original superbike.^[1212][1213]
• Front disc brake — The Honda CB750 (1969) was the first mass-production motorcycle with front disc brake.^[1214][1215]
  • Hydraulic disc brakes — Honda CB750 (1969) was the first production motorcycle with hydraulic disc brakes.^[1211][1210]
  • Combined braking system (CBS) — The first CBS was introduced with the Honda RCB1000 in 1976.^[1215][1216]
• Motorcycle dual-clutch transmission (DCT) — The 2009 Honda VFR1200F is the first motorcycle to use DCT.^[1217]
• Motorcycle traction control system (TCS) — Introduced with the Honda ST1100 in 1992.^[1214]
• Oval piston engine — A piston engine utilizing oval cylinders, it was developed by Honda and introduced with the Honda NR500 in 1979.^[1218]
  • 8-valve engine — Introduced with Honda's oval piston engine for the Honda NR500 in 1979.^[1218]

• Universal Japanese Motorcycle (UJM) — The term was coined in the 1970s to describe a proliferation of similar Japanese standard motorcycles that became commonplace following Honda's 1969 introduction of its successful CB750.^[1219][1220]

Navigation

A Japanese taxi equipped with GPS navigation (2004).

• Automotive navigation system — In 1973, MITI and Fuji sponsored CATC (Comprehensive Automobile Traffic Control).^[1221] In 1980, the Toyota Crown had Electronic Auto Compass.^[1177] Honda, Nissan and Toyota released car navigation systems in 1981.^[1221]
  • Automotive dead reckoning — The first automotive navigation systems relied on dead reckoning, including Honda's Electro Gyrocator (1981).^[1221]
  • Car navigation system — Honda, Nissan and Toyota released car navigation systems in 1981.^[1221]
  • Navigation system with map display — Honda's Electro Gyrocator (1981) was the first car navigation system with a map display, using a small CRT display.^[1221]
  • Navigation system with high resolution display and disk storage — In 1987, the Toyota Crown featured the first car navigation system using a high resolution CRT display and a CD‑ROM optical disc drive.^[1222][1223]
• Backup camera (rear-view camera) — First production automobile with a backup camera was the Toyota Crown in 1987.^[1224] In April 2000, Nissan's Rear View Monitor was introduced for the Infiniti Q45, with on-screen parking guidelines.^[1225][1226]
  • Surround-view system — Introduced in 2007, with Nissan's Around View Monitor (AVM) for the Elgrand and Infiniti EX35,^[1227] and Mitsubishi's "Multi-around monitor system" for the Delica.^[1228]
• Blue LED traffic light — In 1994, Nichia initially commercialized blue LED technology for traffic lights.^[1229][624]
• Satellite navigation (Satnav) — In 1961, Hidetsugu Yagi designed the first wireless navigation system for military use.^[1230] In 1990, Mazda's Eunos Cosmo was the first production car with a built-in satellite navigation system.^[1231]
  • GPS navigation — In 1990, Pioneer Corporation's AVIC-1 was the first GPS car satellite navigation system.^[1232] The same year, the Mazda Eunos Cosmo was the first car with a built-in GPS satellite navigation system.^[1233]
  • Voice assisted GPS navigation — In 1992, the world's first voice assisted GPS navigation system was introduced for the Toyota Celsior.^[1177]
  • Satnav panoramic view — In 1995, Nissan introduced BirdView, the first satnav with 3D over-the-shoulder panorama view. BirdView used a 32-bit CPU and Nissan image processor.^[1234] Its map view became the standard for satnav devices.^[1235]
  • Differential GPS (DGPS) — In 1997, a navigation system using differential GPS was developed as a factory-installed option on the Toyota Prius.^[1236]
• Tactile paving — The original tactile paving was developed by Seiichi Miyake in 1965.^[1237] The paving was first introduced in a street in Okayama city, Japan, in 1967. Its use gradually spread in Japan and then around the world.
• Wireless navigation system — In 1961, Hidetsugu Yagi designed the first wireless navigation system for military use.^[1230]

See also

• History of science and technology in Japan
• History of typography in East Asia
• List of automotive superlatives
• List of Chinese inventions
• List of Chinese discoveries
• List of Korean inventions and discoveries
• List of Taiwanese inventions and discoveries
• Science and technology in Japan
• Ten Japanese Great Inventors