International technology: Japan turns its ingenuity to the world computer market: Breakthroughs in component design and system performance, along with finely honed marketing skills, underlie the Japanese challenge

The year 1978 will go down in history as the one in which the Japanese computer industry became a force to be reckoned with in world markets. After two decades of intensive development, Japan's leading mainframe makers unveiled in January 1978 what was heralded as the world's largest and fastest computer system. Then, before IBM could riposte, Fujitsu and Hitachi went on to announce in September that they would soon have available a system of even higher performance.