Akira Yoshino, an honorary fellow with Asahi Kasei Corp. and a professor at Meijo University, won this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry along with two other scientists for the development of lithium-ion batteries, technology that is used in smartphones and other devices that have become essential to our everyday affairs. They indeed deserve the prize for developing what the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences called a technology that "revolutionalized our lives" and for laying out "the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society."

Lithium-ion batteries were commercialized in the early 1990s. Due to their far higher performance than earlier generations of rechargeable batteries, the small, lightweight power cells have become indispensable in a wide range of electronic devices such as video cameras, portable computers and cellphones.

The technology enabled people to use such devices in places where access to power is unavailable. In recent years its use has expanded to vehicles, and there are expectations that its application in power storage devices will help achieve a stable supply of electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind, thereby expediting the move away from fossil fuels.