Development of ``quantum technology'' that will bring disruptive innovation to industry and society Government strengthens support...Aims to ``accelerate'' practical application

The development of quantum technology based on the principles of quantum mechanics is gaining momentum.

A quantum computer that uses this has destructive performance that can solve a problem that would take 10,000 years for a current supercomputer in 3 minutes. For that reason alone, it has implications not only for industry, but also for security, and could have a major impact on global power relations.

Japan also plans to promote technological development and industrial development on a national basis, such as revising the "Quantum Technology Innovation Strategy" established by the government in 2020, but the United States and China, which are ahead, are lagging behind. How far can you rewind just by being there?

Quantum is a unit of matter and energy smaller than the atomic level. A representative example is the "photon," which is the smallest unit of electrons and light. Many people probably know that ordinary computers today represent "0" and "1" by the presence or absence of electrons, and use the "binary system" for calculations.

On the other hand, quantum computers use quantum mechanical phenomena to create a "superposition" that is "both 0 and 1". This makes it possible to process a large number of calculations in parallel, enabling high-speed calculations.

The center of quantum technology is the development of this quantum computer. The ones that have been announced for operation so far include Canada's D-Wave Systems' "D-Wave", US IBM's "Q System One", and US Google's "Quantum Annealer v2.0". In 2019, Google was said to have succeeded in solving a problem that would take 10,000 years to solve on a state-of-the-art supercomputer in just over 3 minutes, demonstrating its power. However, all of them are in the prototype stage, and there are several methods, and it is not yet known which technology will survive.