Abstract
Ten years had passed in 21st century. Japan became one of the peace countries in the world after post world war-II disturbed period and high economic growth. Many of Japanese people can feel abundance in their life. Ancestor's effort to develop this country can be seen in the development of electric railcar as public mass-transport. In this paper, the position of "Japanese manufacturing" is reviewed through the history of development of electric railcar and approach of technical development. Development of electric railcar is reviewed in four periods, reconstruction period of country after world war-II, period of high economic growth, turning period after the growth, and globalized period. Pioneer's idea can be glimpsed in documentary records or preserved vehicle such as industrial heritage. From them, the needs in each age and technology to be applied to rolling stock in the age can be observed. As one of engineer with half way of life, technical innovation of electric railcar is introduced through experience of rolling stock design work, in comparison with pioneer's exploit.Then, technical progress and technology transfer to next generation are considered. This paper is the summery of keynote lecture on 14th September 2011.
