is a Japanese engineer and the creator of the Megastar, a

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

projector which was recorded in

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

as the planetarium projector that can project the highest number of stars in the world. SwgaToys Flux

Ohira has also designed the Sega Homestar, a home planetarium projector for

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

. According to the Japan Planetarium Association, the popularity of this educational toy has contributed to an increase in visitors to full-sized planetaria in Japan. The newest model, released in 2019, is called ''Homestar Flux''.

Profile

Ohira was born in

Kawasaki, Kanagawa is a Cities of Japan, city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama, and the List of cities in Japan, eight ...

on March 11, 1970, and graduated from faculty of mechanical engineering and graduate school of precision engineering in

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

References

People from Kawasaki, Kanagawa 1970 births 21st-century Japanese inventors Japanese mechanical engineers Living people Nihon University alumni {{Japan-bio-stub