Tokyo Quantum computers are considered to be the next big breakthrough: they can solve computing problems in seconds that traditional computers would take years to solve. Until now, it seemed as if Chinese and American companies would split the technology business between themselves. But in the coming year, the Japanese technology group Fujitsu also wants to launch its own model, developed together with the Japanese research institute Riken.
In the web of tightly knit Japanese corporations, a virtue has persisted that permeates many areas of industrial policy: perseverance, or what I call the concept of creative preservation. The former computer superpower has long since lost its former market leadership in chips, mainframe computers and notebooks.
But the state and corporations did not give in to Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter’s ideology of creative destruction, according to which new things must rise from the ashes of declining industries.
Instead, the players relied on the proven model of keeping the core of key technologies alive in Japan in order to be there again for the next quantum leap.
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Japan keeps key technologies in the country in order to maintain the broadest possible industrial base. This can also be seen in shipbuilding, where Japan’s once dominant shipyards are now hoping to snatch market shares from the current world market leaders China and Korea with zero-emission ships.
>> Read also: How Germany wants to catch up in quantum technology
Japan’s engineering industry also provides examples. The display divisions of half a dozen companies were combined in Japan Display. The semiconductor manufacturer Renesas was formed from the merger of the chip divisions of Mitsubishi Electric and Hitachi. Even at the corporate level, the idea of creative preservation is alive and kicking.
Sony continues to produce high-end smartphones – on a small scale – to understand this market and be ready for the next mobile technology. The situation is similar in computer technology: Fujitsu, for example, switched to company notebooks and special applications such as quantum simulation and supercomputers. Until recently, the “Fugaku” model was the fastest computer in the world.
Japan is already a pioneer in quantum technology
Meanwhile, Japan’s early pioneering role in quantum computing was preserved at the Riken Research Institute, headed by the legend Yasunobu Nakamura. In 1999 he developed the first stable superconducting qubit, as the smallest unit of the new super-fast computer technology is called, for the Japanese technology group NEC. With state subsidies and now private-sector partners, he is still among the best in the world.
It was hardly foreseeable that the new computer technology would become a reality when the state started the subsidy machine again. In 2020, the government launched various “Moonshot” projects in order to keep up with the world leaders in key industries in the long term. Among other things, an error-tolerant quantum computer is to be developed by 2050, which is considered the holy grail of the new technology.
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Since then, things have happened in quick succession: like Germany, Japan also received a quantum computer from IBM in 2021, which companies can use to familiarize themselves with the new technology. The difference: Japan’s Tokyo University also secured a second, smaller computer that can be opened. The university can now better train its own junior staff and Japan’s already strong supplier base there.
So far, American companies have been the technology leaders when it comes to quantum computing.
Photo: IBM/dpa
(Photo: dpa)
The production of new computers by Fujitsu and Riken is the next step. The current models are little more than test objects. The Japanese model comes in at just 64 qubits, slightly more than Google’s 2019 calculator and half as much as IBM’s latest piece.
A million qubits may be needed for true commercial applications. But the partners expect rapid scaling from now on. Thanks to the additional experience in the market, Japan remains a real contender for a medal in the race for the important key technology.
In the Asia Techonomics column, Nicole Bastian, Sabine Gusbeth, Dana Heide, Martin Kölling and Mathias Peer take turns commenting on innovation and economic trends in the world’s most dynamic region.
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