The 100 Years History of Crystallography in Japan

A century ago, crystallogtaphy ushered in the era of modern science & technology in Japan. The beginning of modern crystallography in Japan dates back to 1913. Torahiko Terada (Tokyo Imperial University) demonstrated X-ray diffraction[1] and Shoji Nishikawa (Tokyo Imperial University) reported on X-ray patterns of fibrous, lamellar and granular substances[2]. In 1936, Ukichiro Nakaya (Hokkaido University) successfully classified natural snow crystals and made the first artificial snow crystals. In the last half-century, developments in crystallography helped form thriving manufacturing sectors such as the semiconductor industry, the iron and steel industries, the pharmaceutical industry, the electronics industry, the textile industry, and the polymer industry, as well as a wide array of academic research.