Year: 2007

Japan is the world's top innovator

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date May 21, 2007
2 Comments on Japan is the world's top innovator

The “Economist Unit Intelligence” announced some days ago that Japan has been the world’s top innovator country during the last year. This conclusion was reached after using many variables, one of the most important parameters for the study is the number of patent applications per inhabitant. I checked the last patent report from WIPO and confirmed they are really patenting a lot! , last year the number of patent applications per million inhabitants was 3.5 times higher than the United States.

Next chart shows the number of patent applications per million inhabitants during the last year:

Check the report in English

Various

Three wheeled motorbikes

In Japan three wheels motorbikes are pretty popular. There are also many “big” bikes, but you can’t see many little “scooters”. I’m used to Europe where “scooters” rule the big cities. I suppose the main reason is users who would have a “scooter” in Europe they have a bicycle in Japan. There are many many bicycles here.

Some typical three wheeled motorbikes you can see in Japanese cities.

Technology

Umbrella with a screen

Pileus.net announced they are going to commercialize umbrellas with a screen originally developed by Keio University. On rainy days we will be able to watch TV, access the Internet and even watch our pictures with a nice “umbrella user interface” (Watch video). The most interesting application would be available thanks to a GPS integrated in the umbrella that will use Google Maps to guide us.