When Tokyo last hosted the Olympics in 1964, the unveiling of a high-speed train capable of reaching the unlikely speed of 210 kilometers per hour (130 mph) marked the dawn of a high tech era in Japan.

In the space of a decade and a half, innovations such as the VCR from Sony Corp., flash memory from Toshiba Corp. and Space Invaders, the arcade shoot-em up that revolutionized the gaming industry, made Japan a byword for global technological superiority, and the rhetoric was to overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy.

When Tokyo last hosted the Olympics in 1964, the unveiling of a high-speed train capable of reaching the improbable speed of 210 kilometers per hour (130 mph) marked the dawn of a high tech era in Japan.

In the space of a decade and a half, innovations such as the VCR from Sony Corp., flash memory from Toshiba Corp. and Space Invaders, the arcade shoot-em up that revolutionized the gaming industry, made Japan a byword for global technological superiority, and the rhetoric was to overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy.