Expectations are high for innovations in the 21st century. That is because the aspirations for innovations will be a source of new growth. Electronic information and communications technology will before long enter into its fifth generation and innovations of a kind unforeseeable today will sooner or later surely be developed. The United States is running at the forefront and Germany, having adopted its "Industrie 4.0" strategy, is paving the way for a new era. The bigger the dream, the better.
On Jan. 3, 1901, at the start of the 20th century, the Hochi Shimbun carried an article with the headline "Predictions for the 20th Century," listing its 23 predictions for the new century. The latter half of the 19th century was an era in which advanced countries were competing with one another for technological achievements by staking their national prestige on events like the world expositions. The Crystal Palace, the Eiffel Tower, the telephone and the automobile were some results of these aspirations. The Hochi Shimbun's predictions, at a time when aircraft, computers and nuclear power did not yet exist, were marvelous. Some of these were:
First, with wireless communications linking the world, a caller in Tokyo will talk freely with a friend in London or New York, and long-distance photography will allow a newspaper editor in Tokyo to speedily get information about Europe and take snapshots of the European situation electronically.