Chapter 209
Even at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, the medal rush of Japanese athletes does not stop. The origin of the word Paralympics is Parallel + Olympic, and the word Handicapped is not used. If you watch the competition, you will understand why the term Handicapped is not used. It is full of dynamism and has a strong vitality. It is better to think of it as individuality rather than disability. There is a Japanese term called "satisfied with all five senses," but I mistakenly thought that it meant that there were no abnormalities in sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch. There are various theories, but the theory that the head, torso, arms, legs, and soul are added to make up the five senses made sense to me. The religious interpretation is that if the soul leaves the body, it becomes a corpse, but when you look at Paralympic athletes, you feel that the strength and robustness of the soul is even stronger than that of Olympic athletes. Even if the four senses are healthy, if they are mentally ill, they are not complete. It is not difficult to imagine that the journey that the athletes themselves, their families, and their supporters have taken so far has been tremendous. It cannot be expressed in a simple word such as despair. His dignified appearance, which does not show even a trace of despair, makes me feel ashamed. I cannot help but feel my own weakness and disappointment. I am over 60 years old, and I am made to keenly realize that I still have a long way to go. Japan's specialty LED has lost its momentum due to the offensive of Korean, Taiwanese, and Chinese companies, but I would like to make a comeback once again. Fortunately, the market for UV-LED is too narrow, and Chinese LED manufacturers chasing the market are being eliminated. Also, mercury lamps are finally no longer able to be manufactured, and a movement to replace them with UV-LEDs is beginning. The luminous efficiency of UV-LEDs varies depending on the wavelength, but for the 365nm wavelength known as i-line, which is used for industrial purposes such as resin curing and exposure, it is 30%, and for the 385nm wavelength it is over 40%, exceeding that of mercury lamps, and is expected to increase to over 50% in the future. "Semiconductors, semiconductors" is a big boom in semiconductor stocks in the stock market, but UV lamps containing mercury are still used as light sources for exposure equipment, which is essential for their production. This is a prime example of an image-driven approach to ecology and SDGs that does not match reality. As you know, mercury is an environmental pollutant, and two of Japan's four major pollution diseases, in Kumamoto Prefecture and Niigata Prefecture, are caused by organic mercury poisoning. More than 70 years have passed since Minamata disease was officially discovered in 1956, but lawsuits between patients, the government, and companies are still ongoing. It is ironic that a large-scale factory of Taiwan's TSMC, which consumes a large amount of mercury lamps, has been invited to Kumamoto Prefecture. The government may have a sense of exonerating Kumamoto Prefecture, but if that is the case, it should restrict the light source of all semiconductor manufacturing equipment installed in Kumamoto Prefecture to UV-LED, which does not use mercury. If Japan-made UV-LEDs can eradicate mercury lamps from semiconductor manufacturing plants not only in Kumamoto but all over the world, not only will this be socially significant, but we can also expect economic ripple effects as the UV-LED industry expands in scale. It may be a matter of life and death for mercury lamp manufacturers, but as lighting is replaced by LEDs, cars become electric, and AI advances accelerate, the nonsense of using fossil technology from half a century ago to manufacture semiconductors, which are at the core of these things, must be changed. Looking at the performance of Japanese athletes at the Olympics and Paralympics, the decline of the Japanese economy seems extraordinary. The business world must deeply reflect and rise up.
Image of 365nm UV light emission of 10mm×10mm large chip
September 4, 2024
Thoughts on the Paris Paralympics
