In 1943, Thomas Watson, the chair of IBM, famously said, ‘I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.’ Senior engineers at the corporation dismissed the future use of microchips. Scepticism of emerging …
Tag Archive for: "Japan"
France invented the attack helicopter in 1956. Sixty-seven years later, Japan has decided that the idea has had its day. ‘Elimination of obsolete equipment’ is the cruelly decisive headline above photos of a Bell AH-1 …
In December, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the most ambitious expansion of military power in Japan since the creation of the country’s self-defence forces in 1954. Japanese defence spending will rise to 2% of …
For decades, Japan has based its international clout on economic competitiveness, not military might. But, with China’s lengthening shadow darkening its doorstep, Japan now seems to be abandoning its pacifist post-war security policy—which capped defence …
The American baseball player Lawrence ‘Yogi’ Berra is widely quoted as observing, ‘It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.’ Whether or not he actually said it, the point is valid. Nevertheless, here are …