Nano in Japan

Next up is co-chair of the Research sessions, Hiroshi Yokoyama, Director of the Nanotechnology Research Institute, part of AIST in Japan — one of the leaders of nanotech in Japan. He is an expert in liquid crystal nanotech but in this talk he is giving an overview of nanotech in Japan. A survey showed that about 50% of average people in Japan know what nanotech is (far better than US and Europe). Nanotech investment in industry is increasing at 35% annually. Annual number of nanotech companies starting up is increasing fast. He gave one in-depth example: nanotech for flat panel displays and the “revolution by integrated nanotechnology”. One goal is to build a desk top factory for minimal manufacturing using ink jet printing (“similar to productive nanosystems we heard about this morning, but much less ambitious”).