List of Japanese inventions and discoveries

This is a list of Japanese inventions and discoveries. The Japanese have made contributions across a number of scientific, technological and art domains. In particular, the country has played a crucial role in the digital revolution since the 20th century, with many modern revolutionary and widespread technologies in fields such as electronics and robotics introduced by Japanese inventors and entrepreneurs.

Arts

;Comic book
;Folding hand fan
;Manga
;Revolving stage

Film and animation

;Anime
;Man with No Name
;Postcyberpunk animation/film
;Steampunk animation
;Superflat

Architecture

;Capsule hotel
;Japanese castle
;Metabolism
;Tahōtō

Atmospheric sciences

;Downburst
;Fujita scale
;Fujiwhara effect
;Jet stream
;Microburst

Sports

;Drifting competition
;Ekiden
;Gateball
;Keirin

Martial arts

;Aikido
;Judo
;Jujutsu
;Karate
;Kendo
;Ninjutsu
;Okinawan martial arts
'''Sumo'''

Video games

;Active Time Battle
;Beat 'em up
;Bullet hell
;Fighting game
;Nintendo
;Platform game
;PlayStation
;Psychological horror game
;Rhythm game
;Scrolling platformer
;Shoot 'em up
;Stealth game
;Survival horror
;Visual novel

Philosophy

;Lean manufacturing

Biology, chemistry, and biomedical science

;Agar
;Aspergillus oryzae
;CRISPR
;Dementia with Lewy bodies
;Ephedrine synthesis
;Epinephrine (Adrenaline)
;Esophagogastroduodenoscope
;Frontier molecular orbital theory
;General anesthesia
;Immunoglobulin E (IgE)
;Induced pluripotent stem cell
;Methamphetamine
;Neutral theory of molecular evolution
;Nihonium
;Okazaki fragment
;Photocatalysis
;Portable electrocardiograph
;Pulse oximetry
;Statin
;Takadiastase
;Thiamine (Vitamin B₁)
;Urushiol
;Vectorcardiography

Finance

;Candlestick chart
;Futures contract

Food and food science

;Fortune cookie
;Instant noodle
;Monosodium glutamate
;Umami

Mathematics

;Bernoulli number
;Determinant
;Elimination theory
;Hironaka's example
;Itô calculus
;Iwasawa theory and the Main conjecture of Iwasawa theory
;Resultant
;Sangaku
;Soddy's hexlet
;Takagi existence theorem

Physics

Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix
;Nagaoka model
;Sakata model

Technology

;Airsoft
;Blue Light Emitting Diode
;Camera phone
;Digital microscope
;Double-coil bulb
;Japanese typewriter
;KS steel
;MKM steel
;Neodymium magnet
;QR code
;Tactile paving
;TV Watch

Chindōgu

Chindōgu is the Japanese art of inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that, on the face of it, seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem. However, Chindōgu has a distinctive feature: anyone actually attempting to use one of these inventions would find that it causes so many new problems, or such significant social embarrassment, that effectively it has no utility whatsoever. Thus, Chindōgu are sometimes described as "unuseless" – that is, they cannot be regarded as 'useless' in an absolute sense, since they do actually solve a problem; however, in practical terms, they cannot positively be called "useful." The term "Chindōgu" was coined by Kenji Kawakami.