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OCR for page 34
7
Conclusion
The many organizations that are neither purely academic nor purely industrial
offer possibilities for expanding access through exchange of researchers and
information. The pattern of the past, however, has been one of Japanese partici-
pation in and access to these organizations in the United States, but no similar
experience for U.S. technical personnel with respect to Japan.
Because they are the targets of national government policy in both countries,
national labs offer opportunities for increased exchange and collaboration under
bilateral agreements such as the U.S.-Japan Agreement for Cooperation in Sci-
ence and Technology. Because they are R&D organizations under the government's
direct control, however, they can also become the objects of restrictive policies
based on efforts to secure or maintain national technological leadership. Despite
the gradual changes under way in U.S.-Japanese national lab cooperation, some
believe the legacy of asymmetrical access, combined with increasing concerns
about global competitiveness, may lead to restrictions on foreign access to the
U.S. research environment or to a push toward indigenous technology develop-
ment in Japan.
U.S. federal labs, except for those conducting classified research, have tradi-
tionally been open to foreign researchers. Last year Oak Ridge National Labora-
tory received 1,200 visitors from Japan and 64 Japanese scientists and engineers
conducted research there. Of its 1,090 guest researchers last year, NIST hosted
432 from foreign countries; 32 of those were Japanese. This openness represents
a significant investment on the part of U.S. labs. It is estimated that a U.S. staff
scientist who hosts a full time visiting researcher must devote about 20 percent of
his time to guiding that researcher's activities.58
34
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35
In 1987, all of Japan's national labs together received only 543 foreign re-
searchers.59 Although ETL receives 1,200 foreign visitors each year, in fiscal year
1988, it had less than 40 foreign guest researchers.60 Of the 26 accepted as of
November 1988, five were from North America. Japanese figures on national
lab exchanges do not include large, national inter-university research institutes
under the Ministry of Education, some of which receive numerous foreign re-
searchers and conduct significant basic research. The National Laboratory for
High Energy Physics (KEK), for example, received 325 foreign visitors in 1987,
about 100 of whom stayed more than one month.62 In comparison with the 64
Japanese visiting researchers to Oak Ridge, the U.S. lab sent only four to Japan.
The reasons for the disparity between the number of Japanese researchers in
U.S. federal labs and the number of U.S. researchers in Japanese national labs are
complex, including problems on both sides that extend beyond the policies of the
laboratories. The career patterns of government researchers are different in the
United States and Japan: Research abroad is generally seen to be more advanta-
geous to a Japanese researcher's career than to that of his or her American
counterpart. The shift in support for graduate education in the United States from
grants to loans may also restrict the ability of young post-graduate researchers to
go abroad. Research abroad is a luxury for a young U.S. researcher faced with a
large student loan debt to be repaid. A number of other barriers have been noted,
including expensive and inadequate housing in Japan, the language barrier, the
lack of adequate accommodations for the education of foreign children, and a lack
of experience in hosting foreign researchers from advanced industrial countries.
There are signs of change, however. Researchers at NIST report that they have
good access to Japanese national labs, including those of MITI and NTT. The
number of foreigners in Japanese national labs, while still small, has been increas-
ing in recent years,63 and recent changes in Japanese laws allow the employment
of foreign researchers in Japanese national labs and universities. New fellowships
specifically aimed at helping foreign researchers who want to work in Japanese
national labs have also been established. As of October 1989, the NSF had
awarded 22 STA fellowships. Although less than half of the slots administered by
NSF have been filled, the number of U.S. postdoctoral researchers applying for
and receiving these fellowships has been on the rise.
On the U.S. side, federal labs are also beginning to encourage their research-
ers to go to Japan, where there are good research opportunities. NIST and other
U.S. labs offer Japanese language classes during working hours for interested
researchers. There is also significant, ongoing collaboration between the United
States and Japan through national labs. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for
example, is involved in collaborative research with Japan in areas such as new
materials for fission energy, fusion development, nuclear fuel reprocessing, nu-
clear shielding, and nuclear physics.
In looking to the future, environmental and global issues offer"fertile ground"
for additional collaboration. These include critically important areas that require
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36
complex, expensive, long-term, multidisciplinary research; examples are ozone
depletion, globally distributed contaminants, erosion, desertif~cation, ocean pollu-
tion, urbanization, biodiversity, deforestation, and resource depletion.
U.S. consulting organizations are becoming increasingly international. Some
large U.S. not for profit consulting organizations have seen their contract research
for Japanese clients grow, in terms of contract values, multiclient programs, and
the joint commercialization of research results. Southwest Research Institute, for
example, conducts research for Japanese clients in an array of engineering fields.
These trends can lead to challenges as well as opportunities, a major one being
the question of whether consulting organizations will assume a significant role in
a two-way transfer of science and technology, particularly from Japan to the
United States. Working with foreign clients can lead to expanded persome
exchanges, an indispensable ingredient of technology transfer. The proprietary
nature of much of the work of U.S. consulting organizations, however, requires
that projects are compartmentalized and visitors escorted. U.S. consulting organi-
zations will be increasingly challenged by potential conflicts between the interna-
tionalization of research and maintaining their lifeline of confidentiality. The
internationalization of science and technology also highlights the need for trans-
lation of scientific materials in a timely maimer. For some U.S. not for profit
consulting organizations with ties to Japan, access to scientific information from
Japanese companies is facilitated by physical visits to the Japanese location.
Although there have been isolated cases of restrictions on foreign attendance
at meetings in recent years, professional associations may represent one of the
most open avenues for international access to scientific and technological infor-
mation. A few Japanese professional association journals, such as those of the
JAST and the JSAP, are published in English, as are the results of some profes-
sional associations studies leg., the JSPS study on rolling bearings). There is
however, a considerable lag in receiving English language Japanese scientific and
technical information, an indicator of the need for more, better, and faster trans-
lation. An important obstacle to U.S. access is the fact that Japanese professional
association meetings are conducted in Japanese. U.S. researchers will need to
make special efforts to learn more about the information that is exchanged at
Japanese professional association meetings.
In view of the fact that Japan's national labs, professional associations, and
"hybrid" organizations perform important roles in carrying out and disseminating
the results of R&D useful to industry, these organizations offer unique opportu-
nities for learning from Japan. In addition to the technology developed and
adapted by these organizations, they are worthy of study from an organizational
perspective. The "hybrid" organizations are still evolving, but they provide
mechanisms to join efforts among competing private sector funs, a goal advo-
cated by some in the United States today. While comparatively little attention has
been paid to the professional associations in Japan, they are also actively involved
in R&D projects useful to industry. "Professional associations" function some
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37
what differently in the United States and Japan, but these differences must be
taken into account if they are to play a large role in international R&D collabora-
tion.
Organizations that are not purely academic or industrial play important roles in
the Japanese and American R&D systems, although those roles are often differ-
ent. Some describe them as "bridging" organizations that provide links between
basic research carried out primarily in universities and the more applied and
proprietary research under way in private corporations; it is clear that they
perform a wide array of other functions. It may be more accurate to view these
organizations as islands in a river, with one bank formed by the university
research facilities and the other bank by corporate laboratories. In this sense, the
organizations that are neitherpurely academic nor industrial form important parts
of a complex and dynamic R&D system in both countries. In addition to actually
carrying out R&D, they in some cases help to set R&D priorities, diffuse technol-
ogy domestically, and transfer technology internationally. Understanding these
organizations better is a prerequisite for improving their effectiveness in two-way
access to the R&D systems in the two countries.
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Endnotes
1 National Science Foundation, The Scientific and Technology Resources of
Japan: A Comparison with the United States (Washington, D.C.: June
1988), 53.
2 Kagaku Gijutsu Cho Gijutsu Seisaku Kyoku [Science and Technology Agency,
Technology Policy Bureau], Kagaku Gijutsu Yoran [Science and Technology
Survey], 1989, 52-53.
~ Nll is privately operated, however.
4 Somucho Tokei Kyoku [Management and Coordination Agency, Statistics
Bureau], Kagaku Gijutsu Kenkyu Hokoku [Report on the Survey on Research
and Development], 1987, 77, 81, 89.
See Science and Technology Survey, op. cit., 53.
By "government-owned" research institutions, we refer here to those which
receive most of their funding from the national government, not including
higher education institutions. It should be noted, however, that significant
research and development is carried out in the United States with state and
local government support. These organizations were not the subject of this
meeting and are not covered in this report.
39
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40
7 OECD, The Changing Role of Government Research Laboratories (Paris:
1989), 7.
8 There are a number of university-based facilities such as the Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center in the United States and the National Laboratory for High
Energy Physics (KKK) in Japan that are particularly active in basic research.
They were subjects of discussion at the first bilateral meeting in this series
and will not be dealt with here.
9 The IDA R&D budget (82 billion yen) made up almost one third of the total
R&D budget for national laboratories in Japan in 1988. Masahiro Kawasaki,
"Changing Role of National Laboratories in Japan," Keynote address, U.S.-
Japan Dialog on Differences and Similarities in the Working Environment
for Research, Workshop on National Labs and `'Bridging" Organizations,
June 5-6, 1989. Some of this funding may be passed on in the form of
con Tracts to others.
10 Agency for Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of International
Trade and Industry, Symposium on Opportunities for US-Japan Science and
Engineering Research Cooperation (March 1989), 3. The budget for AIST
including the headquarters was about $885 million. The labs accounted for
$347 million. Throughout this paper, Me following average yearly exchange
rates are used: 1985: $ 1 = 238.54 yen; 1986: $ 1 = 168.52 yen; 1987: $ 1 =
144.64 yen; 1988: $1 = 128.2 yen.
11 See Richard J. Samuels, Research Collaboration in Japan, MJT Science and
Technology Program, 1987, 39.
12 See Samuels, ibid., 40.
13 The exact number depends on how they are counted. U.S. Departn:lent of
Commerce, Directory of Federal Laboratory and Technologies Resources,
1988-1989 (Washington, D.C.: 19879; Office of Science and Technology
Policy, Progress Report on Implementing the Recommendations of the White
House Science Council's Federal Laboratory Review Panel, Volume I-
Summary Report, July 1984.
14 In the United States, the term "national laboratories" is usually used to refer
to DOE's large, multipurpose government-owned contractor-operated labs.
Other U.S. government laboratories are generally called-"federal laborato-
ries." For purposes of this paper, all U.S. government labs will be called
"federal labs," to distinguish them from Japanese`'naiional labs."
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41
15 Science and Technology Agency, National Laboratories and Research Public
Corporations in Japan; Kagaku Gijutsu Cho [Science and Technology
Agency], Zenkoku Shiken Kenkyu Kikan Meikan [Directory of Japan's Na-
tional Research Organizationsl, 1987-1988.
16 National Science Foundation, The Science and Technology Resources of
Japan: A Comparison with the United States (Washington, D.C.: June
1988), 53.
17 Masahiro Kawasaki, 4'Changing Roles of National Laboratories in Japan,"
Keynote address, U.S.-Japan Dialog on Differences and Similarities in the
Working Environment for Research, Workshop on National Labs and "Bridg-
ing" Organizations, June 5-6, 1989; National Science Foundation, Naiionol
Patterns of Science and Technology Resources: 1987, 39.
18 U.S. government R&D funding increased 33 percent between 1980 and 1985
in constant 1982 dollars; the comparative figure for Japan is 17 percent.
National Science Foundation, The Science and Technology Resources of
Japan: A Comparison with the United States Washington, D.C.: June
1988), 52.
19 Kagaku Gijutsu Cho [Science and Technology Agency], Kagaku Gijutsu
Hakusho, 1988 [Science and Technology White Paper, 1988], 242.
20 While the U.S. DOE labs may not be representative of all U.S. labs in terms
of organization and management, they nonetheless reflect general govern-
ment policy toward the labs. The prevalence of examples from DOE labs in
this paper is a reflection of the fact that some of the U.S.-Japan dialog partici-
pants were most familiar with those labs. DOE's large multipurpose labs
represent a major segment of the U.S. federal labs. They include five energy
labs Argonne, Oak Ridge, Brookhaven, Berkeley, and Hanford and three
weapons labs Los Alamos, Livermore, and Sandia.
21 Even during the 1960s, the Council recommended strengthening basic re-
search. The recent controversy over papaws modest performance in most
areas of basic research indicates that this recommendation was not heeded.
22 Examples include the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 (and subsequent amendments
to it), The Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of the same year,
the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, (which provided a legislative
mandate for the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer),
the 1987 Technology Innovation Act, and two Executive Orders, including
the 1987 order on "Facilitating Access to Science and Technology."
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42
23 Alexander Zucker, Keynote address, U.S.-Japan Dialog on Differences and
Similarities in the Working Environment for Research, Workshop on Na-
tional Labs and "Bridging" Organizations," June 5-6, 1989.
24 Last year Oak Ridge National Laboratory issued 30 such patents. Lab
representatives hold that these patents have been issued in areas in which
U.S. industry is not involved, ea. ceramics processing and the development
of new alloys.
25 "Government budget" refers to funds received from the ministry for joint
research and development and does not include funds provided by industry
participants.
26 Kagaku Gijutsu Cho [Science and Technology Agency], Kagaku Gijutsu
Hakusho, 1988 [Science and Technology White Paper, 1988], 85-86.
27 Kagaku Gijutsu Cho [Science and Technology Agency], Kagaku Gijutsu
Hakusho 1988 [Science and Technology White Paper, 1988], 43.
28 Science and Technology Agency, Research Development Corporation of
Japan, 1986.
29 Research Development Corporation of Japan, ERATO, 2-3.
30 Michael K. Ozanian and Alexandra Ourusoff, "The FW International 500,"
Financial World, March 7-20, 1989, 86.
31 Iwao Toda, "An Overview of R&D Activities in NTr," U.S.-Japan Dialog on
Differences and Similarities in the Working Environment for Research,
Workshop on National Labs and "Bridging" Organizations, June 5-6, 1989.
32 Carla Rapoport, "The World's Most Valuable Company," Fortune, Vol. 118,
Oct. 18, 1988, 92.
33 "Privatization" of NTr is an ongoing process that continues to be the subject
of great debate in Japan. See, for example, "Mel bakari no Mineika" [Priva-
tization in Name Only], Nihon Keizai, May 5, 1989, 1.
34 As noted above, some of this funding may be passed to others in the form of
contracts.
35 This figure includes the budget of the AIST headquarters.
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43
36 NIST's total budget includes funds reimbursed from sources other than
federal government appropriations. NIST's federal obligations for 1987
were $117,286,000.
37 Office of Science and Technology Policy, Progress Report on Implementing
the Recorrunendations of the White House Science Council's Federal Labo-
ratory Review Panel, Volume II Status Report by Agencies, July 1984, 7-
8. ETL's 1988 budget amounted to about 3.5 percent of the total of Japanese
national labs' budgets that year. Estimates for the same year show that NIST
(then the National Bureau of Standards, NBS) accounted for less than .2
percent of U.S. federal R&D obligations. National Science Foundation,
National Patterns of Science and Technology Resources: 1987, 53.
38 The result has been an increase in the average age of nahona1 lab researchers
to 42.8 years. Although some believe that a similar problem exists in the
United States, comparable data are unavailable and some DOE studies have
concluded that this is not a serious problem. Nor should it be assumed that
older researchers are always less productive.
39 Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Agency of Industrial Science
and Technology, 1988, 5.
40 The Franklin Institute has been disbanded.
41 These consulting firms note that although the financial value of the work they
do is less than one percent of the nation's total R&D budget, they have served
virtually every major industrial firm in the United States. The industrial
clients of not for profit U.S. consulting organizations range from small to
very large companies both in the United States and abroad. On a dollar
volume basis, however, service to large corporations predominates.
42 Southwest Research, for example, is able to conduct environmental technol-
ogy development for the auto industry while simultaneously working with
the Environmental Protection Agency to develop environmental standards
because of circumscribed boundaries on each program that keep information
compartmentalized. Battelle's policies are similar, prohibiting the organiza-
tion from conducting the same research for two clients simultaneously.
43 Robert E. Schwerzel, "Battelle as a "Bridging" Organization: Some Specific
Examples of Technology Transfer in Integrated Optics and Nonlinear Op-
tics," U.S.-Japan Dialog on Differences and Similarities in the Working
Environment for Research, Workshop on National Labs and "Bridging"
Organizations, June 5-6, 1989.
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44
44 An example of U.S. private, not for profit work for the government is DOE's
Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL), which is an operating division of Bat-
telle.
45 Most professional associations are voluntary and open for membership, usually
subject only to minor restrictions on age, experience, and education. There
are, however, organizations such as the Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science asPS) that are not membership organizations but nonetheless play
an important role in bringing together scientists and engineers from various
sectors and in promoting international scientific exchange. Most profes-
sional membership associations have membership dues that, coupled with
subscription fees and conference attendance fees, support the organization.
Institutional memberships or industrial company memberships, which some
associations permit, commonly cost more than individual memberships.
Membership size varies widely in both countries. The Institute of Electrical
and Electronic Engineers has 300,000 members worldwide (240,000 in the
United States). The American Chemical Society has about 137,000 mem-
bers. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has 119,000 members,
including 19,000 students. The American Society for Engineering Education
has about 10,000 members. The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineering
has about 40,000 members. The Japan Society of Precision Engineering has
7,700 members. The Japan Society of Tribologists has 3,000 members.
46 The American Society of Civil Engineers, one of the oldest U.S. professional
associations, was founded in 1852. The American Society of Mechanical
Engineers was founded in 1880. The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineer-
ing, Japan's largest professional association, was established in 1897.
47 The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers dates its history back to
1884.
48 The JSME-ASME agreement consists primarily of an exchange of the two
societies' publications.
49 "Nihon Ryugakusha ni Joseikin" [Subsidies for Foreign Studentsl, Nihon
Keizai, March 25, 1989, 11.
50 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, JSPS Annual Report, 1987-1988,
1.
51 J-TES, Inc.,"J-Ties," (College Perk: Autumn, 1987), 2-3.
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45
52 Toshio Sata, "Technology Transfer in Japanese Academic Societies and
Engineering Associations" U.S.-Japan Dialog on Differences and Similari-
ties in the Working Environment for Research, Workshop on National Labs
and "Bridging" Organizations, June 5-6, 1989.
53 The following discussion draws on remarks by Izuo Hayashi at the U.S.-
Japan Dialog on Differences and Similarities in the Working Environment
for Research, Workshop on National Laboratories and "Bridging" Organiza-
tions, June 5-6,1989 and a paper on "Collaborative Research in Japan" by
Izuo Hayashi, Masahiro Hirano, and Yoshifumi Katayama.
54 The Japan Key Technology Center was set up by MITI and the Ministry of
Posts and Telecommunications with dividends from the sale of NTT stock. It
acts as a kind of venture capitalist, providing 60-70 percent of the investment
in projects with the rest of the capital from the participating companies who
actually operate the projects independently of the government.
55 The project is scheduled to run for ten years. It involves 13 member
companies and 25 researchers working at the joint lab.
56 See Hayashi, et. al., op. cit., 38.
57 Kazuhiro Fuchi, presentation on the Fifth Generation Computer Systems
Project, U.S.-Japan Dialog on Differences and Similarities in the Working
Environment for Research, Workshop on National Laboratories and "Bridg-
ing" Organizations, June 5-6,1989.
58 Alexander Zucker, Keynote address, U.S.-Japan Dialog on Differences and
Similarities in the Working Environment for Research, Workshop on Na-
tional Labs and "Bridging" Organizations, June 5~, 1989.
59 Kagaku Gijutsu Cho [Science and Technology Agency], Kagaku Gijutsu
Hakusho, 1988, [Science and Technology White Paper, 1988], 45.
60 Koichiro Tamura, "Role of the Electrotechnical Laboratory as a Public Serv-
ice Organization," U.S.-Japan Dialog on Differences and Similarities in the
Working Environment for Research, Workshop on National Labs and "Bridg-
ing" Organizations, June 5-6, 1989.
61 Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Electrotechnical Laboratory,
1989, 16.
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46
62 Ken Kikuchi, "High Energy Physics in Japan," U.S.-Japan Dialog on Differ-
ences and Similarities in the Working Environment for Research, Workshop
on University Research Labs, Jan. 9-10, 1989.
63 Japanese national research institutes received 543 foreign researchers in
1987, up from 217 in 1984. Kagaku Gijutsu Cho [Science and Technology
Agency], Kagaku Gijutsu Hakusho, 1988 [Science and Technology Agency
White Paper, 1988], 45. There is no indication of the length of stay of these
foreign researchers.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
kagaku gijutsu
