Mr. Yano joined Sharp in 1972, a year before the company introduced the COS pocket calculator-the first in the world to have an LCD display. He was immediately assigned to the LCD calculator project and has since spent almost all of his years with Sharp working to develop LCD technologies. In 1983, while pushing ahead with developments to take LCD application from calculators to watches, Mr. Yano was shocked by news that a competitor had introduced a 3-inch LCD color TV. The system used in that TV was different from Sharp’s, but it was undeniably a “flat TV.”

Mr. Yano experienced a sense of respect for the engineers who had made something that that no one had been able to make before. That respect was mixed with a sense of regret that Sharp had not been able to make it. Sharp, after all, was the company that developed the first TV set produced in Japan. And Sharp had been moving ahead with research on a variety of systems for flat-panel TVs. Mr. Yano felt that Sharp should have been able to build the first flat-panel TV using the LCD technology accumulated up to that point. “The only thing we lacked was the ‛spirit to take on new challenges…; Because he cannot forget the chagrin he experienced on that occasion as an engineer, to this day Mr. Yano gives young engineers a pep talk entitled, “When in Doubt, Go For It!”

Sharp did go for it, bringing a 3-inch LCD TV to market and joining the competitive fray to little by little make screen sizes larger with 4-inch and 5.5-inch models. Next came the development of a 6-inch model, but that was nothing more than chasing after the competition. In keeping with his motto of “Let’s do work that will never be forgotten,” Mr. Yano devoted himself to the development of a 14-inch LCD TV, something that common wisdom at the time said was impossible. The subsequent success of the 14-inch screen caused a sensation around the world and demonstrated for the first time that LCDs could replace CRTs.

Kameyama Plant No. 1 became operational in 2004. The LCD TVs (panels) produced there showed that LCDs surpassed CRTs in size, image quality, and energy efficiency.
And Sharp’s technological prowess grew with every new model. When developing the 65-inch model, the largest size now being mass-produced at Kameyama Plant^*1, Sharp found all its calculations to be so accurate that the new model could be produced precisely according to computer simulations. This might have been the ultimate culmination of LCD technologies accumulated by Sharp for more than 30 years. But at that point, Mr. Yano clearly saw, “We can go up to 100 inches in size.”
And then came January 2007. Sharp announced the development of a 108-inch LCD TV, the world’s largest^*2. Just 20 years had elapsed since Mr. Yano dreamed of making LCDs at least 20 inches in size so that wall-mounted TVs could become a reality.

Today, Mr. Yano has a Kameyama Model in his own home. Noting the beauty of the full-spec HD TV images he enjoys watching on the big screen, he smiles and says, “The programs I watch are changing.” Mr. Yano goes on to declare, “First and foremost, I want our customers to be impressed by the images they see. At the same time, our TVs should be priced affordably. Just because it has a big screen is no excuse…;
The eyes of a man who proved there are no limits to LCDs are already turned toward the next goal. Just as before, it might be uncharted territory where no one has gone before. And, of course, he will be certain to remind himself, “Let’s do work that will never be forgotten.”

*1  As of February 20, 2007
*2  As of January 8, 2007