It wasn't until after the Meiji Restoration that Japanese first became aware of the civilizations of Europe and the U.S. The gap between what those civilizations were achieving and Japan's culture came as a great surprise and initiated concentrated efforts to bring many aspects of those civilizations and cultures inside Japan's own borders. None of us would deny the fact that the efforts of those predecessors gave rise to advanced industries that support the lifestyle we enjoy today. I'm beginning to have a feeling, however, that we're coming back to fundamental questions about whether bringing in other cultures to mix with ours was the right approach. Perhaps we've reached the point where, instead of absorbing knowledge from other sources, we need to begin creating new objects and items for ourselves. Ever since Hamamatsu Photonics was founded, we've been involved, in one way or another, in what is still unknown and what no one yet knows. Time and again, we've been approached by people asking us to create this or that, and we would all sit down at the plant and put our heads together. On occasion, that process gave rise to successful results. As we continued that approach, our achievement rate grew, and we began putting our ideas into product form. Those of us who have come through that process are now able to say, "An infinite realm exists in what mankind doesn't yet know and has not yet achieved."