Compared to its premiere 57 years ago, Japan has little to offer the world technically at the Olympic Games in Tokyo: no new monorail to the airport, no new city highway, no new high-speed Shinkansen train.
Patrick Welter
Correspondent for business and politics in Japan, based in Tokyo.
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The video show projected by Panasonic on the running track in front of the men's 100-meter run was impressive, as was the globe that Intel (American!) Flew into the night sky above the stadium with 1824 drones.
But innovations that testify to progress and, as in 1964, promise optimism and a better future for all to see?
Nothing.
No longer remote controlled
Toyota appears in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, but you have to look carefully.
Experienced Olympic spectators have known little carts that drive around on the green of the sports field and transport discus discs or spears back to the athletes since Beijing, London or Rio.
But in Tokyo something is different.
The trolleys are not remote-controlled, but are robot cars that drive autonomously with the help of artificial intelligence.
The one-meter-long vehicles give a glimpse into the future of the car as Toyota imagines.
The robot cars independently follow the helpers to the point of impact of the disc or spear and are loaded.
Without external steering, they drive from there to the dropping point and back to a waiting position.
The trolleys avoid people and obstacles and are programmed so that they do not damage the grass.
Toyota has no plans to mass-sell the robotic cars specially designed for the games. The technology could, however, be used in other, unmanned vehicles, it is said. So the wagons are not as impressive as the Shinkansen express train in 1964. But they will be remembered as a symbol of technological advancement during the Tokyo Games.