Japanese Nobel Laureates

The Nobel Prize in physics is shared between two Japanese and an American of Japanese decent. This is nice for someone like me, who is half American of fully Japanese decent. The prize is given to these men because of their work on some of the smallest particles known to man, quarks, the building blocks from which protons and neutrons in atoms are built. I do not understand the work as such, nor do I understand how this work matters in the everyday life. On the other hand, as far as I can understand, neither do most humans. Advanced research like this may matter more to everyday life generations (at least dog generations) from now, but people who know say that it is important. I have no reason to doubt that.