"In the past, Japan meant Sony, Toyota, Honda, Canon... But now, as AI is changing the world, where does Japan stand?"
A friend asked me this at a reunion of former Japan exchange students a few days ago.
The table became livelier; everyone had their own thoughts, views, and opinions. I didn’t answer immediately. The answer I wanted to give did not lie in ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other AI model. It began with the lessons I learned from two Japanese professors.
My PhD supervisor in Japan is now 78 years old. While others at his age would be retired with grandchildren, he still comes to the research lab almost every day.
His research team is pursuing a topic that seems so disconnected from AI: recovering phosphorus from waste as a raw material for producing yellow phosphorus (P₄).
