We attended the PIERS Chiba 2025 meeting recently. The meeting was graced by the presence of the Japanese Emperor, Naruhito. The Japanese monarchy is probably the only existing one that claims lineage back 2000 years. (Western scholars will put this figure at about 1,500 years ago). The emperor gave a speech in English and had a closed meeting with 7 select scientists from the conference (Kazuya Kobayashi, Leung Tsang, Sailing HE, me, and three other Japanese scientists).

The emperor wanted to know why we were interested in science and technology. One of the Japanese scientists mentioned that his interest stemmed from watching the Star Trek movie and his fascination with AI. I opined that AI had no soul, and AI would never replace humans. The emperor thought for a while about this.

The event was due to the tireless work and feat of the conference chairman, Prof. Kazuya Kobayashi. This gesture showed the importance that the Japanese put on the importance of science and technology. This meeting was meaningful because we also met up with the Japanese scientist, Prof. Shinichiro Ohnuki, and his wife, Rina. Ohnuki is now the president of the largest university in Japan, Nihon University. He was a visiting scientist (two times) to our research group in Illinois.

It was a very interesting trip for us since we had grown up in Malaysia with a deep sense of our Asian identity. Japan is fascinating because it was the first Asian country to be industrialized and to acquire a Western technology economy. When they did so, they joined the "club" of Western powers by wanting to colonize much of the countries of East Asia. They harbored the hope to establish a Co-Prosperity Sphere with the East Asian countries. However, this came into conflict with America as American power was expanding westward into the Pacific Ocean. But the Japanese militarists were determined to defeat the Americans, forcing them out of the Pacific Ocean. The conflict resulted in the Pearl Harbor event and the dropping of two atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The damage was so deleterious that it forced the surrender of the Japanese militarists, followed by the occupation of Japan by America (us).

Though defeated, the Japanese were undaunted: they built their economy back from the rubble of the Second World War; many considered this to be an economic miracle. The post-war economy of Japan was entirely based on the development of civilian technologies: cheap motorcycles, cheap cars, cheap electronics, etc. Such a development was fascinating: The Japanese have built an economy based on the use of the human brain. Before, they were a country surviving on barren rocky land with little agriculture or natural resources.

The Japanese culture has fascinated many: their militarist culture had inflicted much pain on the people they occupied, but the American occupier was fascinated by their polite manners and acts of civility. That was helpful in the rebuilding of a defeated Japan.

What is fascinating is that Japan is probably the only culture that can preserve old cultures from over a thousand years ago. Japan borrowed heavily from Tang Dynasty China (618-907 AD), considered by many to be the apex of Chinese civilization.

But many of the Chinese cultural elements that were lost or ravaged by war in China can still be found in Japan. It is said that Japan still has the best collection of Tang architecture. Also, the tradition of Tang court music still lives on in Japan.

Hence, when Japan normalized relations with China in 1972, the then prime minister, Kakuei Tanaka, presented China's leaders with the music scores of Tang China's court music, which had been lost in China. The Chinese book of technology, Tiangong Kaiwu (exploitation of the work of nature), lost in China in the Qing dynasty, was rediscovered in Japan, Korea, and France.

Japan had demonstrated to the world that one can prosper with a focus on civilian industry. It was followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea. Japan and America were generous in sharing their knowledge with the new Asian economies (China included). America (we) used to hold 50% of the world's GDP, but now, it is more like 17%. We have to rethink very hard as to how we fit inside this new world order for peaceful development.

On Friday, Nov 7, 2025, we were treated to a boat tour of the Chiba Bay on a Tang Dynasty-style boat. We were greeted by musicians with influence from Tang China. Even the lion dance was different from those we have seen in other parts of Asia. We removed our shoes on embarking, etc., and were treated to Japanese sushi and sake.

During our trip, we found the Japanese to be scrupulously honest. My wife lost her eyeglasses but retrieved them from the taxi center. I lost my thumb drive and a bunch of keys at the conference center, but found them at the conference lost-and-found office. We did not have much sightseeing, save for a brief visit to Chiba Shrine and a nice Japanese garden (見濇園).

My laptop crashed, and we had to shop for a new laptop as a result. We, together with HE Sailing, a professor at ZJU, China, had to walk over to Aeon Mall to look for a new laptop. None of us spoke Japanese, and we relied on the cell phone to translate our speech for us.

Sincerely,
Weng Cho