｜Length : 49min. ｜Year : 2008 ｜

813 young people under the age of 23 gather in Japan from around the world to compete in 47 different skill categories. Japan, once a force to be reckoned with, has recently faltered in the competition. Behind these disappointing results is the hollowing out of Japan's technical workforce as its factories move abroad and its experienced engineers retire. Over the four-day competition, this program reveals the struggles that Japanese manufacturers face in producing a new generation of skilled workers.

｜Length : 74min. ｜Year : 2005 ｜

In 2004, a series of terrible natural disasters assailed the globe, inflicting enormous damage. Japan's World Heritage sites, unlike the stone-built monuments of Western Europe, are relatively fragile wooden structures. Yet they have demonstrated an astonishing strength in the face of natural disasters. The Japanese archipelago is subject to nature's fury in many forms: earthquakes, typhoons, and more. What are the secrets that have allowed these monuments to last for a thousand years or more?
This programme delves into the hidden strengths of Japan's World Heritage sites to introduce the unique attitude of "accommodating nature's fury" and tradition of wooden building that came to characterize Japan's people over a millennium.

｜Length : 49min. ｜Year : 2004 ｜

Although Japan once dominated the global market for semiconductors, a fierce price war left Korean, Taiwanese and other manufacturers in control while the Japanese semiconductor industry fell into a slump. Now Japan is fighting back by harnessing a traditional industrial strength: unshakable determination to develop superior technologies. The programme focuses on the world of mobile phones, where high-performance semiconductors hold the key to international success.

｜Length : 44min. ｜Year : 2000 ｜

The circuit boards which lie at the heart of devices such as personal computers and mobile ohones are criss-crossed by numerous fine lines. These are the lifelines connecting up the various electronic components which together make up large-scale integrted circuits. The copper foil used to make these lines is extremely thin - 35 microns to be exact.

｜Length : 30min. ｜Year : 1997 ｜

Long before robotics, mechanical dolls served the people

The technology used by Sakichi Toyoda to develop the automatic loom and eventually auto plant robotics dates back to the Edo period when mechanical dolls (karakuri dolls), powered by springs, performed a variety of tasks, from serving tea to adorning festival floats. This show focuses on a family which has carried the art of karakuri making through to the present era. The goal of Shobei Tamaya, ninth in his family of karakuri craftsmen, is to mesh the technology of the past with today's computer-generated works and line city streets with mechanical doll clocks.