The Japanese inventions that changed the world
The top 3 according to 0 votes from people: Instant noodles (1958) · The Walkman (1979) · Karaoke. (Updated Dec 1, 2024.)
Momofuku Ando's instant noodles, Sony's Walkman, karaoke, the QR code, emoji, the blue LED and the Shinkansen: inventions from Japan that changed everyday life around the world. Which one do you use every day?
Automatically translated (original in 繁體中文). See the original
Top 16
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1
Instant noodles (1958)
Invented by Nissin's Momofuku Ando; voted by the Japanese the greatest Japanese invention of the 20th century.
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2
The Walkman (1979)
Sony's portable cassette player that let people listen to music on the go.
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3
Karaoke
The sing-along machine built by Daisuke Inoue.
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4
The QR code (1994)
The two-dimensional barcode invented by Denso Wave.
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5
Emoji
Designed by Shigetaka Kurita for NTT Docomo.
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6
The blue LED
Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for it.
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7
The Shinkansen (1964)
Opened for the Tokyo Olympics, linking Tokyo and Shin-Osaka at over 200 km/h.
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8
The electric rice cooker
The cooker that makes rice by itself, transforming Asian kitchens.
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9
The Washlet (1980)
TOTO's bidet toilet seat.
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10
Tactile paving
The textured paving Seiichi Miyake designed for visually impaired people.
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11
The Roland TR-808 (1980)
Ikutaro Kakehashi's drum machine, which changed hip-hop and electronic music.
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12
iPS cells (2006)
Shinya Yamanaka's induced pluripotent stem cells.
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13
Statins (1973)
The cholesterol-lowering drugs discovered by Akira Endo.
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14
The Prius hybrid (1997)
Toyota's mass-produced hybrid car.
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15
Car navigation (1981)
The first car navigation system, developed by Honda.
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16
The camera phone (1999)
Kyocera's camera phone.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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