Fast Forward Japan : Arigatai Books : 9781737318217 : 1737318210 : 21 Jun 2021 : For many decades now, Japan has been known for its contribution to cutting-edge technologies, and even now Japan is ranked high in fields such as robotics research. Much of Japan's advanced technologies has been inspired by ideas in comic books (authors like Osamu Tezuka of Astro Boy) and literature (authors like Sakyo Komatsu, Yasutaka Tsutsui, and Shin'ichi Hoshi). Beginning his writing career in 1928, Juza Unno took inspiration from Western authors like Jules Verne as well as his own knowledge of electric engineering to write fiction that integrated a broad spectrum of creative innovative ideas. His stories touch upon everything from facial reconstruction and gender reassignment surgery to video phones, cryogenics, multi-dimensional beings, and celestial body orbit adjustment (and, of course, robots). Because of this, Unno is sometimes referred to as the father of Japanese science fiction. This collec