Akio Shindo, a researcher at the Government Industrial Research Institute of Osaka (GIRIO), develops from 1959 onward (Japanese patent filed that year, results published in 1961) a process for making carbon fiber from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) instead of rayon, achieving fibers with an elastic modulus above 140 GPa — roughly three times that of the American rayon fibers of the time, developed in the line begun by Roger Bacon at Union Carbide. Shindo's work, according to specialized industry sources, remained "largely unknown to Western scientists" at the time, despite clearly outperforming contemporary American technology; its effective dissemination in Japan began around 1964, when other Japanese researchers quickly adopted the process for pilot-scale production. The PAN method would eventually become the dominant route of the global carbon fiber industry, used today in high-performance aerospace, automotive, and sporting applications.