Yoshiro Nakamatsu writing underwater
Dr. NakaMats writing underwater. Still from The Invention of Dr. NakaMats

This guy came up at last night’s PDX Occulture meet-up, so I thought I’d share:

Who invented the computer floppy disk? The digital watch?Ask Dr. Yoshiro NakaMats, the man known as “Japan’s Edison,” and he’ll be glad to tell you it was none other than he.

While some might dispute his claims, it is a fact that Mr. NakaMats holds the all-time record for patents – over 3,000, or three times as many as Thomas Edison, who holds second place.

He has been named by the International Tesla Society, a Colorado-based association of inventors, as one of the five most influential scientists in history, along with such luminaries as Archimedes and Marie Curie.

Full Story: International Herald Tribune: ‘Japan’s Edison’ Is Country’s Gadget King : Japanese Inventor Holds Record for Patent

From Brainsturbator’s profile:

Is there a secret to becoming an inventor? How do you come up with new ideas?

I am teaching philosophy at the University of Tokyo. The base for everything is a strong spirit, followed by a strong body, hard studies, experience and finally leads to a ‘trigger’ experience. You ‘trigger’ a bullet which contains spirit, body, study and experience – and finally that releases the actual invention.

How do you ‘trigger’ an invention?

A lack of oxygen is very important.

A lack? Isn’t that dangerous?

It’s very dangerous. I get that Flash just 0.5 sec before death. I remain under the surface until this trigger comes up and I write it down with a special waterproof plexiglas writing pad I invented.

Do you do that a lot? Putting yourself in that kind of situation to come up with a new invention?

Of course. This is the Dr. Nakamatsu method.

See also: Wikipedia: Yoshiro Nakamatsu.