Covering the economic and industrial might of Japan

A former vice president of NEC, Watanabe Tadashi, won an award from the US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

The award comes from taking a lead role in creating, at the time, the world's fastest supercomputer way back in 1983.

Watanabe is now a project leader with the Next-Generation Supercomputer R&D Center at RIKEN - the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research.

Watanabe is the first Japanese to receive the Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award.

I owe my introduction to this man. My first laptop was an NEC. I bought it in Japan. I learned Ichitaro and Lotus 1-2-3 long before I knew what Windows and Excel were.

Japanese are not usually recognized for their creativity and leadership, but more for being able to improve on existing inventions.

Congratulations to Watanabe! And thanks for introducing me to the PC.