21st Century Innovation Systems for Japan and the United States Lessons from a Decade of Change: Report of a Symposium (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Technology Policies in Japan: 1990 to the Present--Akira Goto and Kazuyuki Motohashi
Technology Policies in Japan: 1990 to the Present--Akira Goto and Kazuyuki Motohashi
Pages 29-39
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From page 29... ...
After the collapse of the so-called bubble economy in 1992, the Japanese economy went into a long and severe recession, which lasted more than a decade. As shown in the Figure 1, in contrast to the booming 1980s, the 1990s was really a "lost decade."1 The seemingly obvious cause of this prolonged stagnation was the excess capacity built up during the boom years of 1980s and the resulting sharp decline of investments in plants and equipments in the 1990s,2 which led to a steep decline in asset prices and to loan defaults.
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From page 30... ...
Another popular explanation, held mostly by management theorists, business people, and policy makers, is the reduced technological capability of the Japanese firms.5 They contend that still-high R&D expenditures in the 1990s seem not to have produced the new products and processes that would have generated profits. The large market share once held by technology-intensive Japanese industries 4See Peek and Rosengren (2005)
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From page 31... ...
goto-motohashi_02.eps such as semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment industries eroded significantly, and Japan was not able to keep pace with the United States in the newly emerging high technology industries such as biotechnology and information technology. These analysts believe that something seems to have gone wrong with Japan's once-successful innovation system.
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From page 32... ...
patents. SOURCE: NISTEP, Science and Technology Indicators.
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From page 33... ...
It will examine Japan's new framework of technology policymaking, government R&D programs, the R&D tax credit, technology policy toward small and medium enterprises (SMEs) , and efforts to promote links between university and government labs and industry.
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From page 34... ...
One important side effect of this new S&T policy planning scheme was that it practically forced the S&T com munity to review and reflect on Japan's national innovation system in a major way every five years. The National Institute of Science and Technology Policy played a key role in providing basic data for the review and discussion.
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From page 35... ...
2.3 R&D tax credit Among the fiscal measures to promote private sector R&D, the R&D tax credit was considered to be more market friendly because it allows firms, not government, to choose research projects. The tax credit, which was granted for annual increases in R&D spending, was effective when the economy was growing, but as the recession continued after 2000, companies found it difficult to maintain, never mind increase, R&D spending.
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From page 36... ...
This system was established in 1999 to help SMEs enhance their technologydevelopment capability and to support their creative business activities. Specifi cally, ministries in charge of R&D grants and nonprofit special corporations, such as the Small and Medium Enterprise Corporation, a nonprofit funding agency for SMEs, are to allocate a designated share of their R&D grant funding for SMEs.
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From page 37... ...
Since then, national universities in Japan have been given more autonomy, Block funding for the universities has been decreased, while the pool of competitive funding has been increased to provide an incentive for universities to compete on the basis of the quality of educational services and research activities. Thanks to such institutional reforms in government laboratories and national universities, commercialization activities of public research results have been progressed substantially.
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From page 38... ...
In the face of the severe and prolonged recession, technology policy actions such as the temporary increase in the R&D tax credit were used as a tool to boost the economy. Although in principle science and technology policy should take a long-term perspective, the pursuit of short-term stimuli was understandable given the severity and length of the recession.
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From page 39... ...
. Even though each ministry still maintains strong influence on technological development in its area, overall technology policy planning and coordination at the CSTP became visible and important.
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