Japan: Innovative Technology
PBS has started a new series about Japan. You can view the second episode at the following URL.
米国の公共放送ＰＢＳが日本を紹介する番組の、シリーズ第二弾はここで見ることができます。
http://youtu.be/LVE86K2EL7Y
今回も頑張って文字起こしをしてみました！ 台本を見ながらご覧になると英語のリスニングの練習になると思います。和訳はセルフサービスとなっておりますので、予めご了承下さい。
This Is America and the World (2)
With Dennis Wholey
We recently visited Japan, which for us continues to be one of the most unique countries in the world. Tokyo was just named the safest city in the world and certainly is the cleanest and most polite.
The Japanese people and their culture, and Japan’s important role in the world cannot be ignored.
Over the next few weeks, we will explore Japan’s plans for revitalizing its economy, its world leadership in technology, and its vast and intriguing cultural depth.
Japan is a world leader in technology, and we all know the names of Sony, Honda, Toyota, and Mitsubishi.
On this program, we’ll visit some smaller and medium-sized Japanese companies that, while not household names, are clearly on the cutting edge of science, technology, and craftsmanship, designing and producing electron microscopes, prototypes for cameras, and components for smart phones and watches.
These companies are also involved with cultivating a microalgae with endless applications and even the most environmentally friendly toilets.
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Technology is a very broad term and Japanese technology is inventive and incredibly varied.
Nihon Denshi makes the most powerful electron microscopes in the world while Castem produces some of the tiniest components used just about everywhere: airplanes, trains, office equipment and watches, and both companies give back to the communities in which they are located.
Kurihara: The English name of the company is shortened to JEOL because initially the company’s name was the Japan Electron Optics Laboratory Company Limited, so the initials of the full name were taken for the English name, JEOL.
So we call it Nihon Denshi in Japan, which is “Japan Electronics,” but overseas we call ourselves JEOL Ltd.
Wholey: World famous, huh?
Kurihara: Thank you very much.
Wholey: The Japanese have a reputation for being excellent in innovation, technology, craftsmanship. Where does that come from?
Kurihara: Japanese people are strong on teamwork and that leads manufacturing or production of goods to need to have a team to work together.
In Japanese companies, as compared to foreign companies, especially American companies, the time span of our business or the rhythm of our business is much more long-term oriented.
That is something that is essential for the manufacturing industry.
Wholey: If a class of young people ten years old came downstairs and you were greeting them at the door, how would you explain this company to them?
Kurihara: Every year the company and staff go to ten or fifteen different primary schools.
We carry the smallest-sized electron microscopes to those schools and show the students there how to observe insects, for example ants, and what would bee pollen from plants look like.
We try to teach them how interesting it is to observe those small things and the relevance of doing so.
Exactly as we do in those situations, I will tell the ten-year-olds that have visited our company that there lies the strength, and that is exactly the technology of this company, to try to make small things, very small things, visible to the human eye, and that will lead to the growth of scientific technology in the future.
These days in Japan there is much attention being focused on the fact that children at schools, primary schools as well as junior high schools, no longer prefer to study science.
But that would endanger the future of this country. In order to prevent this, what we would like to do is to make a contribution so that the small children will continue to take interest in science. And I hope that my company will be to do that.
Wholey: What is an electron miscroscope?
Kurihara: Microscopes can be categorized into two categories: optical microscopes and electron microscopes.
Whereas in the case of optical microscopes the degree of magnification is quite small, with the electron microscopes these days you would be able to observe and see with your own eyes each atom.
You can see the atom, atom by atom, and be able to identify the different types of atoms as well be using the electron microscope.
So electron microscopes are something indispensable for semi-conductors as well as material science.
And also medical and all these cutting-edge technologies need electron microscopes.
Wholey: And you make them here?
Kurihara: Yes. Everything is produced in Japan.
Wholey: So who buys these electron microscopes, who uses them? Because they are used all over the world, right?
Kurihara: For electron microscopes as well as for analytical instruments, the U.S. market is a huge market for us as well as Europe.
First and foremost, our users will be universities, those research institutes engaged in basic science, and also national institutes of the different countries and the research institutes affiliated with big companies. These are our main users.
Wholey: Are there other products in addition to the microscopes -- you mentioned scientific instruments as well, -- that this company is involved in selling, distributing throughout the world?
Kurihara: We started with electron microscopes, went into analytical machines, expanded into scientific instruments, and also semiconductor lithography blood anaylsis.
Even today the market is still huge in electron microscopes as well as the scientific instruments.
Wholey: So give me one example of how, say, a university is using one of the electron microscopes. Give me just one example.
Kurihara: In the case of the United States, almost all of the prestigious universities in the United States like MIT, Harvard, as well as the University of California, almost all of them have already installed JEOL’s electron microscopes to use for basic research and other purposes, which may eventually bring about winning a Nobel Prize, and actually already some of the Nobel Laureates are users of the JEOL electron microscope.
Wholey: Why are Japanese so good at innovation?
Toda: Well, Japan is a very small country with very little natural resources to start with.
Therefore, for many years Japanese imported the raw materials from abroad, but by using their own skills and technology, added value to the product and sold those products at high prices.
And that is how the Japanese businesses or manufacturing sectors have secured very good positions in the world marketplace.
Wholey: Castem. What do you make? What do you do?
Toda: One of the main businesses is the casting business, and out of our casting processes we produce parts and components.
And another pillar of our business is the sintering business. We use metal powders and solidify those powders in order to make precision parts and components.
Wholey: What is injection molding?
Toda: This company started out as a confectionary manufacturer so we used to produce Japanese cookies and so forth, so the same principle was applied.
Metal powders mixed with other materials, that mixture gets inflated but after deflation of those mixtures, the density of the materials becomes very close to 100%.
That enhances the rigidity of the material. Nowadays, the manufacturers require parts and components which are quite small and very active and complex.
So therefore we use injection molding technologies to accommodate such needs from Japanese companies to produce many different forms. And our products are used in many different industries.
Most of our parts and components are quite complex and precise, and they are quite often used in internal mechanisms of some devices like trains and airplanes and some medical devices.
So most of our parts and components are quite invisible, and they are included in cutting edge technologies and devices.
Wholey: I know that Castem today is very involved in the community here. Can you tell use a little bit about that involvement?
Toda: About seven years ago, I started a project which is like an Olympics of skills and technologies of children.
Through that activity, I encouraged children to get involved in play that required a lot of skills.
One of the skills that we try to enhance is paper airplanes, so Castem is charged with providing instructions to children in that skill.
And then for other five skills, different companies are assigned to provide directions to children.
Wholey: You are the master in making a paper airplane and flying it. And you hold the world record?
Toda: I am the Guinness record holder. My airplane soars quite high and then glides for 29.2 seconds.
Wholey: So, if I take my notes that I have been using in our conversation and I give them to you, will you make me a paper airplane?
Toda: It’s quite simple, and if there is a piece of paper, I can just fold it up to make an airplane, and then I sail it into the air.
Wholey: Wooh!
Toda: It needs more curve!
This area of Fukushima was devastated almost four years ago by the earthquake, tsunami, and resulting nuclear power plant disaster.
However, Fukushima continues to push forward. It’s the home to Kikuchi, a state of the art company that’s involved in the design and production of prototypes for digital cameras, hinges used in flip phones, tool and die machinery, and now the world of robotics.
Wholey: Tell us what the company does and what it makes.
Takahashi: Our company is manufacturing prototypes of office automation equipment, watches, mobile phones, or medical devices.
We make a prototype before these products get into the market. From the design to the manufacture, we can do it [all] in the plant in this village.
We at Kikuchi are engaged in the upper stream of the work. I think that Japanese manufacturing is number one in the world.
So we think that the staff in our company has a higher level of technology than other companies.
Wholey: So this is very important to the economy of Fukushima area.
Takahashi: We think that our Kikuchi Seisakusho is very important for the reconstruction not only of Fukushima Prefecture, but Iitate village itself.
Wholey: When people hear “Fukushima,” they think of the nuclear disaster. Are we safe here?
Takahashi: After the accident at the nuclear power plant, we thoroughly decontaminated the [our] plant and around the plant
Wholey: So we are safe.
Takahashi: We are safe here.
Wholey: We see around the factory many houses. Are the houses empty?
Takahashi: No one lives in the houses.
Wholey: No one lives in the houses in the village?
Takahashi: Also, it is prohibited to live in this village.
Wholey: Japan is very famous for innovation, technology, and craftsmanship.
Takahashi: That’s right, especially the craftsmanship.
Wholey: Is that seen in the work that’s done here?
Takahashi: Of course.
Wholey: Do you have a dream for this factory?
Takahashi: We are planning to have some robotic-related businesses like development or manufacturing of robots.
So as the first business we decided to engage in making a robot which would be used for the decommissioning of the nuclear power plant.
Wholey: Do you think that Japan will play a leading role in robotics in the future?
Takahashi: I think so.
Wholey: Number One?
Takahashi: It’s difficult, but I think we can be number one.
Wholey: You can be number one. Thank you so much, thank you.
Japan has its create fingers in so many different types of innovation and technology it boggles the mind.
Two companies were visited in Japan, Toto and Euglena, are heavily invested in healthy living in vastly different ways.
Asada: We are a company that produces something that everybody uses every day without giving much thought about it.
But we are always proposing a new style of convenience and a new way of usage of the product.
Wholey: Toto makes toilets.
Asada: We are making toilets, but not only that. Through that we are also helping people to develop their lifestyle.
Wholey: How so?
Asada: By using our products to start a day in a very comfortable and refreshing state of mind.
Our company produces sanitary wares which are represented by “washlet,” but we are always trying to develop products which have never existed in the world, and develop the products and deliver to our customers Manufacturing has changed because we have to serve so many more customers these days, and in order to make our mass production system work well, we always try to improve our production systems.
In a conventional toilet ware factory we relied so much on manual work, and people made toilet ware and transfers were also done by people.
However, in the new production system, lots of the work has been automated.
Wholey: Over the years, design has changed.
Asada: The conventional setup of the toilet had maybe two parts and the toilet seat or washlet was put on top of the porcelain ware.
The current model does not have a tank. However, there is a motor set inside and by the use of the motor we flush the toilet to clean it.
We consider the usage of water quite seriously. Therefore, we have come up with a technology to save water and at the same time enhance cleaning performance.
And at present we have made it possible to use just only 3.8 liters of water to totally clean the toilet.
Wholey: Toto is a huge global company. What are the markets that you are selling to?
Asada: We mainly sell products to the United States, China and other Asian regions, Europe, including Germany and Italy.
Wholey: So we take going to the bathroom just as a fact of life, but at Toto it’s something special, right?
Asada: Yes. Thank you very much.
Wholey: Toto is very concerned with the environment, isn’t it?
Mochita: はい。
Wholey: Why is that so?
Mochita: Our product uses water to clean the back of people’s sides and at the same time people’s bodies.
So if the water that we use is depleted, we may no longer be able to maintain our culture of cleanliness.
It is quite important for us to conserve the water and the environment.
And therefore we introduce a lot of technologies to conserve water and electricity.
I think the Japanese people are good at paying attention to details. For example, our team works on making alignment between different technical components and parts, such as valves, heat exchangers, and channel shifting and nozzles.
And we are working integrating all these into one unit. So therefore, we think we are quite good at doing such things.
I think people here are especially good at sticking to one project. When they are about to make something, they will not give up until everything gets finished.
Wholey: So what are you proud of that you’ve contributed to Toto?
Mochita: If I can give one example, I have been engaged in the development of what we call the wide bidet.
While the conventional bidet could cover a limited area, with introduction of wide bidet technology, we can now cover a wider target area.
Another thing I am quite proud of is the design of the latest product.
And the latest product is made quite low. The height of that product is low compared with the conventional design, and at the same time it is thinner.
That was achieved by changing the design of the nozzle. So with a very low and thin structure, as I have shown you, it has two stages so the nozzle parts can fit into a smaller compartment.
So overall, we could make a very beautiful and compact design.
Izumo: The reason why Euglena is important is that is has a nutrient as a vegetable, the plant, and also the nutrient from the animal.
And for human beings, these two nutrients are necessary, and it contains 59 different nutrients. So when you keep eating the nutrient, you never ever encounter a disorder of the nutrient.
Wholey: Do you grow Euglena, or do you make Euglena.
Izumo: Euglena is a kind of seaweed. Probably if you have every tried a California roll, this is a California roll and then the seaweed is wrapped around, So this is a kind of seaweed.
So we are the first company in the world to successfully culture this kind of seaweed.
Wholey: Someone said that Euglena was like a powder. Is that true?
Izumo: Yes, that’s true. So Euglena is cultured in water, and then we let it dry, and then from there we make a powder, and then we mix that powder into the drink and cookies.
Wholey: We pick up a drink, so it’s a regular drink, but the Euglena is now in the drink, giving nutrients, protein for health, right?
Izumo: Yes, so it is actually a vegetable juice. However, by adding this Euglena then you are able to intake 59 different nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and saturated fatty acids, all kinds of the 59 nutrients that you are able to absorb in your body and then in a way, this is very healthy.
Wholey: Are there other ways that you can use Euglena?
Izumo: If you squeeze this Euglena, you will get some kind of like an oil. It’s not the plant oil only, and not an animal oil only. We get a kind of a very unique oil. And that oil could be used for jet fuel or biofuel.
Wholey: I have read also that you can use Euglena in cosmetics.
Izumo: Yes, Euglena is used for cosmetics, but not only cosmetics, also used for drugs. So there are many ways to use Euglena. That’s one of the attractive points of this Euglena.
Wholey: Thank you. Thank you, and cheers! Thank you for our conversation. Thank you.
[Credits]