example, Japanese companies that are victims of piracy are increasingly willing to pursue legal action to protect their rights.¹³⁵ At the policy level, the Japanese government has been much less vocal than the U.S. government in pressing copyright issues with China and other developing countries, but has also embarked on a focused effort to cooperate with Asian countries as they develop their intellectual property protection systems.¹³⁶ In the future it may be possible for the United States to work more closely with Japan and other producers of intellectual property to ensure that patents and copyrights are protected in Asia.

• Japan 's research base in industry and at universities is likely to become stronger and more important to the global shape of these industries. As was the case in mainframes and vector supercomputers, Japanese companies are likely to narrow the gap in parallel architecture, workstations, PC development, and perhaps even in software. Future market shifts, such as the rise of network computers that replace the PC, also could provide new opportunities for Japanese companies.

• Both U.S. and Japanese-based information products manufacturers are likely to move more manufacturing offshore. Asian countries will increasingly be the source of components and subassemblies. Some Asian countries could also become the source of engineering development for multinational corporations, as India is today in some areas of software.

• These trends will result in further intensification of global competition, resulting in consolidation, exit of weaker companies, emergence of important new Asian companies, and market share shifts between companies and countries that cannot be foreseen at this point.