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The article discusses the highlights of a three-day symposium on systems, control, and signal processing held in Kyoto, Japan on March 29-31, 2010. The symposium was held to celebrate the 60th birthday of Yutaka Yamamoto, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Topics discussed at the symposium ranged from circuit theory to control and signal processing, from finance to biology, and from numerical methods to sensor networks. Attendees included 135 participants and 34 invited speakers.

I EMERGE FROM THE TOKYO Monorail station on Showajima, a small island in Tokyo Bay that's nestled between downtown Tokyo and Haneda Airport. Disoriented and dodging cargo trucks exiting a busy overpass, I duck under a bridge and consult the map on my phone, which leads me deeper into a warren of warehouses. I eventually find Espec Mic Corp.'s VegetaFarm, in a dilapidated 1960s office building tucked between a printing plant and a beer distributor. Stepping inside the glass-walled lobby on the second floor, I see racks upon racks of leafy green lettuce and kale growing in hydroponic solutions of water and a precisely calibrated mix of nutrients. Energyefficient LEDs emit a pinkish light within a spectral range of 400 to 700 nanometers, the sweet spot for photosynthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Before the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident of 2011, Japan was the third largest producer of nuclear power in the world. Its 54 reactors had a capacity of about 50 gigawatts. Now the Japanese government is contemplating whether it can scale down from 50 GW to zero by 2040 without crippling its economy in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the success attained by Engineer Kunio Koike in designing electronic circuitry of high-end wristwatches at Seiko Epson Corp. in Shiojiri, Japan. It mentions that his commitment in designing electronics became a great contribution for the production of innovative watches in the said company. It highlights the appreciation and recognition obtained by the company due to its wristwatches. It elucidates that most of the Japanese citizens are patronizing Seiko brand watches. Moreover, Koike's brief background, such as educational experiences, and previous job experiences are mentioned.

Three years ago, a tsunami came crashing down on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, leading to the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. As Associate Editor Eliza Strickland explains in this issue in "Fukushima's Next 40 Years," that accident still reverberates strongly in Japan, where all of the country?s nuclear plants are currently off line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It's been a big year for low-energy nuclear reactions. LENRs, as they're known, are a fringe research topic that some physicists think could explain the results of an infamous experiment nearly 30 years ago that formed the basis for the idea of cold fusion. That idea didn't hold up, and only a handful of researchers around the world have continued trying to understand the mysterious nature of the inconsistent, heat-generating reactions that had spurred those claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami four years ago this month, Toyota's automotive plant in Miyagi Prefecture, north of Fukushima, had relied entirely on the Tohoku Electric Power Co. for energy. But when the disaster shut down power to its plant for two weeks, managers realized that the company needed a more secure source. The factory couldn't be independent of the electric grid, but it could manage that energy better? and supplement it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the highlights of the 36th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) which was held in Kobe, Japan in 1996. Professor George Zames, the founder of H-infinity theory, shared his experience about a short stay in Kobe during World War II. The 35th CDC conference proceedings in CD-ROM format was distributed at the 36th conference.

The article presents the author's insights on people who helped "IEEE Spectrum" associate editor Eliza Strickland with her report on the disaster at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan in March 2011. The author says that Tsuneo Futami, professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, has secured her an exclusive interview with Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials. She adds that Iwao Hyakutake, head of IEEE Japan office, helped her replace the interpreter for the interview.

On the morning of 11 March 2011, Japan's cabinet forwarded a bill to parliament (known as the Diet) that would modestly expand support for renewable energy. A few hours later, an earthquake struck northeastern Japan. The tsunami and nuclear crisis it unleashed transformed that noncontroversial piece of legislation into a vanguard of efforts to radically redraw Japan's energy policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]