Learning the R & D System University Research in Japan and the United States (1989) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 1-18
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This new context presents both challenges and opportunities for American and Japanese researchers, businessmen, and policymakers. A central question is how to improve foreign access to Japanese science and technology.
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A number of factors, such as a tradition of central funding and the dominance of senior professors, tend to perpetuate a hierarchical university research system seen by many as inimical to path-breaking, independent research. It is in this context that Japanese research leaders still find much to team from American university research.
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These differences in most instances do not present insurmountable obstacles to a foreign researcher who has the desire and the needed preparation to work abroad, but they must be understood and taken into account if meaningful research collaboration is to be pursued. Better knowledge of how the Japanese research and development system works can also assist those monitoring events in Japan from afar.
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universities. The number of Japanese researchers in scientific and engineering fields working in the United States dwarfs the number of similarly trained Americans in lapan.3 These standard images go far to explain why some of Japan's most outstanding scientists and engineers have found it necessary to go abroad to do the kind of path-breaking research Mat brings worldwide acclaim.
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researchers will be attracted to Japanese university labs only where they offer the opportunity for world-class research. American interest in Japanese research and development today focuses on the work going on in Japanese corporate labs, which are well equipped and where cutting edge research is under way in developing and applying technology.
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But it is the only sure way to establish a sound basis for meaningful collaboration with foreign researchers at Japanese universities. What should not be overlooked, however, are the programs of research in some Japanese universities where productive research collaboration can take place now.
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Not all Japanese universities are organized along the chair system, however. Private universities created after World War II are organized less hierarchically, with We chairs functioning more like American university departments.
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Established in fields that require large, expensive facilities, or large teams of researchers, these institutes are open to all university researchers as well as to foreign researchers. The High-Energy Physics Institute received more than 320 foreigners in 1987, 70 percent of whom were from the United States and about 90 of whom stayed for a month or more.7 Facilities in these institutes are far superior to those in regular university labs and interuniversity research institute faculty reportedly receive as much as five times the funding received by Weir counterparts in university labs.
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While national university professors have in the postwar period been prohibited from direct contract work for industry, indirect lines of communication and cooperation between Japanese universities and industry are usually seen as strong and effective. It is also important to note that the prewar pattern was one of much closer industry-university cooperation in Japan.
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The United States, meanwhile, is giving increased attention to improving technology applications and upgrading the production process. After generations of Japanese success in importing and improving technology and exporting high-quality products, Japan willface severe challenges in efforts to upgrade basic research.
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A related challenge for Japan is to open its research system to really meanin~Culforeign participation. Japanese universities are more open Man other Japanese research environments, but the flow of U.S.
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One way for the United States to address this issue is to encourage minorities~lacks, Hispanics, and women enter science and engineering fields. The increasingly expensive, complex, and cross-disciplina~y nature of scientific research in both nations has generated a needfor new mechanisms for conducting multidisciplinary research.
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In the United States, there is a need for departments and faculty to take responsibility for making internal changes needed to encourage young researchers, rather than putting all of the onus on government programs. For Japanese universities, where traditions of hierarchy and seniority are more entrenched, encouraging younger researchers will be a particularly significant challenge.
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NEXT STEPS In efforts to improve foreign access to the Japanese research system, the importance of improving lapan's basic research capabilities cannot be overstated. The recent establishment by the Japanese government of more fellowships for American scholars is laudable, but if foreign participation in Japanese research is to be expanded, foreigners will have to have sound scientific reasons for going to Japan.
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Senior-level Japanese researchers can make more significant contributions to research collaboration in the foreign setting. Another issue concerns the researchers sent abroad purely for orientation to a foreign culture or as a reward.
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Language skills are not necessarily the most important prerequisite for a foreign researcher going to Japan, but some Japanese language facility can be a tremendous asset in taking advantage of one's time there. Language ability is important for various aspects of laboratory life abroad, from reading equipment instructions to evaluating research results, from participation in formal meetings to the informal discussions and social events that make up the fabric of human networks among Japanese researchers.
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If lapan's efforts to improve basic research are to improve foreign access, the result must be to stimulate research in a freely accessible environment like that of the university research lab. To accomplish this goal, structural changes must be made: changes in funding mechanisms, new incentives for younger researchers, and policies to promote cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary research.
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It should be emphasized, however, that universities make up only one part of the R&D system, and opportunities for research collaboration must be expanded in other institutions" national labs, professional societies, corporate labs and consortia. These important organizations will be He focus of further bilateral discussions on the working environment for research during the next year.
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