Pop Japan

Probably, the next thing we know is that Japan will now make us all fly.

Japan is well-known for being high tech in all aspects of products and industry. It has been one of the few nations that invented and contributed to the world that changed the way we live. They have made contributions in fields such as electronics, robotics, and transportations. 

Here’s a list of Japan’s inventions brought to the field of transportation.

Hoverboard

Inventors have been longing to mimic fiction and create a hoverboard like those of Marty MCfly on the movie, Back to the Future II. 

It was Lexus, the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker, Toyota, that brought Back to the Future to life and invented the first-ever hoverboard. 

On the video trailer, a quote from Lexus Chief Engineer, Haruhiko Tanahashi flashes on the screen which says, “There’s no such thing as impossible... It’s just a matter of figuring out how.” These lines depicted that they actually figured out how hoverboards are created. They named it Slide, that has 32 Yttrium-Barium-Copper Oxide superconductors cooled by liquid nitrogen and rides on a magnetic track. However, the Slide is not for public sale but rather built for scientific achievement.

High-Speed Rail (Bullet Train)

It’s Japan that revived the railway technology after it lost steam in the US cars have been invented. That was in 1964 and when Japan invented and unveiled the first high-speed rail line, Shinkansen or Bullet Train from Tokyo to Osaka, the hype has been on to trains again.

While most regular trains don’t go beyond 300 km/h, the shinkansen attains top speeds going over around 320 kilometres per hour or 199 miles per hour. This has gained popularity all over the world especially in populated countries that need fast mass transit. 

Jet Ski (Water Scooter)

A water scooter is an essential machine for marine sports amusement and Jet Ski was the first water scooter invented. 

Jet Ski is originally a trademark used by Kawasaki for its line of personal motorized watercraft.  However, since the word Jet Ski has been used as a generic name to refer to all personal watercraft, and even used as a verb to describe the use of any type of this vehicle, Jet Ski has proved to be really phenomenal.

It was 1973 when its model was sent to Kawasaki and won a lot of hearts as a way to waterski, without the need for a boat. Jet Skis have gone big during the past decades because new designs have been created, not only to improve the stability further but also to allow two riders at a time. In today’s era, Jet Skis can go faster than ever, reaching 60 miles an hour. 

No Battery Electric Vehicle

The Toyohashi University of Technology and Taisei Corp. is the team behind the future technology of the electric vehicle.

It’s the world’s first electric vehicle that runs without a battery, using special tires that draw power from an electrified road surface. They have shown a solution that is safe to use on public roads because there will be no transfer of electricity through unsealed connectors. 

However, it will be tough for people to use this technology because there are no roads with inductive chargers built anywhere. An inductive charger in parking lots will be a great way to make future electric cars feasible. 

Car Navigation System

Before most of the cars have Global Positioning Satellites (GPS), and Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), which are the satellites that tell you exactly where on earth you are, there were these mathematically challenging methods of navigations. Some of them involve the stars, really accurate clocks and lots of time, that led to a gyroscope-based Electro Gyrocator, developed jointly by Honda and Alpine in the early 1980s. 

It was called Honda Electro Gyro-Cator that led to this innovative technology, the car navigation system that most of the cars have. The Gyrocator can tell how fast the car was going and in what direction. It uses helium-jet gyroscopes, wheel rotation sensors, and a scrolling transparent map superimposed over a CRT monitor and was proved accurate enough to be used by drivers. 

Fastest Elevator

The fastest elevator was achieved by the high-speed elevator, NesWay, designed by a Japanese company the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. 

It travels at 73.9 km per hour (45.8 mph) or 20.5 meters per second, faster than Usain Bolt who runs at 40 ft/s, but a bit slower than a cheetah which can run 95 ft/s. The world’s fastest elevator is installed at the world’s second-tallest building at the Shanghai Tower in China. This elevator is installed in a 632 m (2,074 ft ) tall and travels in 121 storeys. 

With further advances in engine technology, we never know how far the innovations and inventions that Japan have contributed to the world can go. Indeed,  the Japanese, through their inventions, gives us solutions to different challenges that the world faces.