Since 1985 the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering have engaged in a series of high-level discussions on advanced technology and the international environment with a counterpart group of Japanese scientists, engineers, and industrialists. One outcome of these discussions was a deepened understanding of the importance of promoting a more balanced two-way flow of people and information between the research and development systems in the two countries. Another result was a broader recognition of the need to address the science and technology policy issues increasingly central to a changing U.S.-Japan relationship. In 1987 the National Research Council, the operating arm of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, authorized first-year funding for a new Office of Japan Affairs (OJA). This newest program element of the Office of International Affairs was formally established in the spring of 1988.

The primary objectives of OJA are to provide a resource to the Academy complex and the broader U.S. science and engineering communities for information on Japanese science and technology, to promote better working relationships between the technical communities in the two countries by developing a process of deepened dialogue on issues of mutual concern, and to address policy issues surrounding a changing U.S.-Japan science and technology relationship.

Alexander De Angelis, Director*

Thomas Arrison, Research Associate

Maki Fife, Program Assistant

This report covers major insights from a one-day workshop entitled “Corporate Approaches to Protecting Intellectual Property: Implications for U.S.-Japan High-Technology Competition,” organized by the Committee on Japan of the National Research Council and held on June 4, 1993. Part of a series focusing on defining U.S. interests in U.S.-Japan scientific and technological relations, the workshop was supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Jim F. Martin, a member of the Committee on Japan and director of the Palo Alto Laboratory of Rockwell International's Science Center, chaired the workshop. He was joined by experts familiar with the intellectual property strategies of corporations and by individuals with special expertise in the area of high technology competition. The National Research Council's Office of Japan Affairs worked with the chairman to focus the discussions at the workshop and to prepare this report, which captures major themes from the presentations and discussions. Those who made presentations at the workshop as well as the members of the Committee on Japan reviewed the report and provided many useful suggestions, but the report is neither a consensus document nor conference proceedings.

Developments since the workshop confirm the importance of the issues raised in this report. One example is Japan's consideration of changes in its legal protection of software copyrights, which has become a significant issue in U.S.-Japan discussions related to intellectual property protection. The main questions are whether and in what circumstances decompilation of software will be allowed. Decompilation is a process that allows the functions of a computer program to be reproduced without directly copying it. A substantial portion of

the affected U.S. industries—mainly computer and software companies—has expressed concern that possible changes could, in effect, legalize software pirating in Japan. Other U.S. companies would like to see decompilation allowed for the purpose of developing compatible product interfaces. The U.S. government has been active in expressing U.S. industry concerns to the Japanese government. It is likely that this issue and others related to intellectual property protection and high-technology competition will continue to be subjects of interest and possible contention within the United States and between the U.S. and Japanese governments.