Industrial Innovation In Japan

This new book gathers together a collection of case studies of innovation in various industries in modern Japan, challenging accepted notions of Japanese innovation and emphasizing new and diverse trends and practices.

This book studies the industrial development of Japan since the mid-nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on how the various industries built technological capabilities. The Japanese were extraordinarily creative in searching out and learning to use modern technologies, and the authors investigate the emergence of entrepreneurs who began new and risky businesses, how the business organizations evolved to cope with changing technological conditions, and how the managers, engineers, and workers acquired organizational and technological skills through technology importation, learning-by-doing, and their own R & D activities. The book investigates the interaction between private entrepreneurial activities and public policy, through a general examination of economic and industrial development, a study of the evolution of management systems, and six industrial case studies: textile, iron and steel, electrical and communications equipment, automobiles, shipbuilding and aircraft, and pharmaceuticals. The authors show how the Japanese government has played an important supportive role in the continuing innovation, without being a substitute for aggressive business enterprise constantly venturing into unfamiliar terrains.

Long-awaited reforms in technology policy and corporate strategy are now taking place in Japan. This book asks whether it is the programme of reform or the will and ability to implement reforms which is new.

Technology is a key factor in global industrial competition, and Japan's national system of technological innovation has been vital to the economic success of the country since World War II. This book examines the historical development of the system, incl

This text provides an analysis of the development experience of the five most advanced countries in East Asia: Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong. It reviews of the role of the state in industrial development in each of the countries, in general, as well as in selected industries.

Recognizing that a capacity to innovate and commercialize new high-technology products is increasingly a key for the economic growth in the environment of tighter environmental and resource constraints, governments around the world have taken active steps to strengthen their national innovation systems. These steps underscore the belief of these governments that the rising costs and risks associated with new potentially high-payoff technologies, their spillover or externality-generating effects and the growing global competition, require national R&D programs to support the innovations by new and existing high-technology firms within their borders. The National Research Council's Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) has embarked on a study of selected foreign innovation programs in comparison with major U.S. programs. The "21st Century Innovation Systems for the United States and Japan: Lessons from a Decade of Change" symposium reviewed government programs and initiatives to support the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises, government-university- industry collaboration and consortia, and the impact of the intellectual property regime on innovation. This book brings together the papers presented at the conference and provides a historical context of the issues discussed at the symposium.

This book, first published in 1989, compares, contrasts and evaluates the nature, scale and direction of industry-academic interactions in Britain and Japan: the conversion of academic discoveries into practical products. Japan shows its outstanding ability to translate scientific ideas into high technology products. Within this wider investigation, detailed consideration is given to the manner in which these interactions promote innovation and technology transfer. The information in this study provides a perspective against which decisions can be made about industry-education interaction arrangements, and much of this information is largely unavailable outside Japan.

This book analyzes the relationship between technological innovation and economic development in Japan before World War II. Guan Quan deploys econometric analysis, multivariate statistical analysis and case studies from different industries to shed light on technological innovation in the Japanese context with particular emphasis on the importance of the patent system. A great deal of new inventions and patents in this period led to fast economic growth in Japan characterized by the simultaneous development of both traditional and modern industries. These insights help reshape the understanding of Japan's economic development and industrial advancement at an early stage and provide pointers to developing countries as to how human capital, social capabilities and thereby technological innovation can figure in economic growth. The book will appeal to academics of the East Asian economy, development economics and modern economic history as well as general readers interested in the miracle of the Japanese economy as the first to achieve economic development and modernization among non-Western countries.