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Faced with ageing populations, escalating care needs, and growing shortages of care workers, Japanese and EU governments have pursued large, publicly-funded research projects to develop and commercialize care robots. Yet despite their global leadership in this field, Japan and the EU have rarely been compared directly in studies of care robotics. This paper explores similarities in their approaches to the public funding and planning of care robot development, commercialization, and implementation since the late 1990s, and what the differences reveal about their contrasting priorities in science, technology, and innovation policy, as well as differential treatment of care robotics as an industry and as a research domain. I conclude by arguing for the importance of studying such funding mechanisms and institutional actors to better understand their key role in shaping the emergent landscape of care robotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the pattern of knowledge flows as indicated by the patent citations in three areas: USA, Japan and Europe. In each economic area, we use information from United States Patent and Trademarks Office data to assess empirically the impact of the technological and geographical proximities for 530 international firms. In particular, the contribution to the existing literature is twofold: first, we use an international sample in such a way that we may compare the empirical results among different economic markets; second, we extend the analysis of the determinants of knowledge spillovers, taking into account the time dimension of the effects of the proximities. In order to compute the technological proximity, we follow the methodology developed by A.B. Jaffe (1986. Technological opportunity and spillovers of R&D: Evidence from firms' patents, profits and market value. American Economic Review 76, no. 5: 984-1001), where a technological vector is based on the distribution of patents of each firm across technology classes. As far as the geographic proximity is concerned, we use the latitude and the longitude coordinates of the city in which each firm is situated to obtain the distance, in miles, between the firms. The empirical results, in line with results from previous studies, indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship between the knowledge flows, proxied by the patent citations, and the proximities, but the effects are rather differentiated according to the proximity type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having a clear understanding of how leaders perceive their leadership behaviours and firms' situation is critical to help SMEs grasp their strengths and weaknesses. The current paper, therefore, aims to examine the perception towards leadership behaviours, innovation and organizational performance among Asian SMEs. SMEs in China, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand, responded to a survey that revealed their perceptions on four behaviours associated with Design Leadership, four levels of Workplace Innovation, and two types of organizational performance; Profitability and Growth. The analysis of variance was conducted to provide a complete picture of the comparison among the countries. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between Thailand and Japan, Vietnam and Japan, China and Japan on Design Leadership. With relations to Workplace Innovation, there was a negative variance of score between Vietnam and Thailand, and China and Thailand. Finally, significant differences were found amongst most of the countries on Profitability and Growth. The study would assist researchers in understanding how Asian SMEs perceive their leadership behaviours; stages of innovation, and assess their performance. With an accurate perception and understanding, it would lead to the creation of proper strategies and training programs that would contribute to the development of Asian SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A framework model for wellness tourism development in rural areas is developed in this paper, combining the concepts of integrative diversification, tourism product development, and an endogenous approach to innovation dynamics. Three spatial levels of wellness services are considered (establishment, destination, and the region where they are located) in order to identify the required resources, services to develop, stakeholders to involve, and a process to match the supply and demand in wellness tourism. The paper concludes with an exploratory application to the case of east Hokkaido (Japan), identifying crucial challenges for a diversification of wellness services based on the traditional onsen practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines developments in the governance of science and innovation in Japan, with a particular focus on the recent 'regionalisation' of innovation policies and policy support for new university-industry linkages. The paper charts the emergence of national funding programmes, greater institutional autonomy and the promotion of regional diversity. The paper presents two case studies to show how different regions have responded to the policy initiatives. The research suggests that there has been some movement towards regional diversity and the emergence of nascent regional innovation systems. However, questions remain as to the development and potential of truly regional governance structures for science and technology and the role of universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lecocq C., Leten B., Kusters J. and van Looy B. Do firms benefit from being present in multiple technology clusters? An assessment of the technological performance of biopharmaceutical firms, Regional Studies. Firms active in knowledge-intensive fields are increasingly organizing their research and development activities on an international scale. This paper investigates whether firms active in biotechnology can improve their technological performance by developing research and development activities in multiple technology clusters. Regions in Europe, Japan and the United States, characterized by a critical mass in terms of technological activity within biotechnology, are identified as clusters. Fixed-effect panel data analyses with fifty-nine biopharmaceutical firms (for the period 1995–2002) provide evidence for a positive, albeit diminishing (inverted ‘U’-shape) relationship between the number of technology clusters in which a firm is present and its overall technological performance. This effect is distinct from a mere multi-location effect. Lecocq C., Leten B., Kusters J. and van Looy B. 公司是否从其所参与的多技术集群中受益？对于生物制药公司技术性业绩的评价，区域研究。 知识密集型产业中的公司正试图在国际尺度上组织其研究与发展活动。本研究考察了生物制药产业公司能否通过在多重技术集群中发展研究与开发活动而提高其业绩。本研究将欧洲、日本以及美国地区内生物科技产业活动积聚的部分定义为集群。对59家生物制药公司进行的固定效应面板数据分析（时间跨度1995－2002）表明，公司业绩与其所在的技术集群数量之间存在着倒U形关系。这一结果与单纯的多区位效应有所不同。 集群 创新 生物科技 Lecocq C., Leten B., Kusters J. et van Looy B. Les entreprises, tirent-elles profit de leur présence au sein de multiples clusters à technologies? Une évaluation de la performance technologique des entreprises biopharmaceutiques, Regional Studies. Les entreprises qui travaillent dans les secteurs à la pointe de la technologie organisent de plus en plus leurs activités de recherche et de développement au niveau international. Cet article examine si les entreprises actives dans le secteur de la biotechnologie sont capables d'améliorer leurs performances technologiques en développant des activités de recherche et de développement au sein de multiples clusters à technologies. Sont considérées comme clusters, les régions situées en Europe, au Japon et aux Etats-Unis qui secaractérisent par une masse critique en termes d'activité technologique au sein de la biotechnologie. Des analyses (effects fixes) à base de données de cinquante-neuf entreprises biopharmaceutiques (de 1995 à 2002) fournissent des preuves d'un rapport positif, bien qu'en baisse (à savoir, courbe en U inversée), entre le nombre des clusters technologiques au sein desquels une entreprise est présente et sa performance technologique globale. Cet effet se distingue d'un simple effet d'emplacements multiples. Cluster Innovation Biotechnologie Lecocq C., Leten B., Kusters J. und van Looy B. Profitieren Unternehmen von einer Präsenz in mehreren Technologie-Clustern? Eine Bewertung der technologischen Leistung von biopharmazeutischen Unternehmen, Regional Studies. Firmen, die in wissensintensiven Gebieten aktiv sind, organisieren ihre Forschungs- und Entwicklungsarbeit zunehmend auf internationaler Ebene. In diesem Beitrag wird untersucht, ob Firmen im Bereich der Biotechnologie ihre technologische Leistung durch den Ausbau ihrer Forschungs- und Entwicklungsarbeit in mehreren technologischen Clustern verbessern können. Als Cluster werden Regionen in Europa, Japan und den USA identifiziert, die sich durch eine kritische Masse an technologischer Aktivität im Bereich der Biotechnologie auszeichnen. Die (Fix Effekt) analyses der panel daten von 59 biopharmazeutischen Unternehmen (im Zeitraum von 1995 bis 2002) liefern Anhaltspunkte für eine positive, wenn auch nachlassende (Form eines umgekehrten U) Beziehung zwischen der Anzahl der Technologie-Cluster, in denen ein Unternehmen vertreten ist, und der generellen technologischen Leistung dieses Unternehmens. Dieser Effekt unterscheidet sich von einem einfachen Mehrfachstandort-Effekt. Cluster Innovation Biotechnologie Lecocq C., Leten B., Kusters J. y van Looy B. ¿Se benefician las empresas de estar presentes en varias aglomeraciones de tecnología? Una valoración del rendimiento tecnológico de empresas biofarmacéuticas, Regional Studies. Las empresas que son activas en campos que requieren un alto nivel de conocimientos específicos organizan sus actividades de investigación y desarrollo cada vez más a nivel internacional. En este artículo investigamos si las empresas activas en biotecnología pueden mejorar su rendimiento tecnológico al fomentar actividades de investigación y desarrollo en varias aglomeraciones de tecnología. Identificamos como aglomeraciones las regiones en Europa, Japón y los Estados Unidos que se caracterizan por una masa crítica en términos de actividad tecnológica en biotecnología. Los análisis (efecto fijo) de los datos de un panel de 59 empresas biofarmacéuticas (para el periodo de 1995 a 2002) demuestran una relación positiva, aunque decreciente (en forma de ‘U’ invertida) entre el número de aglomeraciones tecnológicas en las que una empresa está presente y su rendimiento tecnológico general. Este efecto es distinto al de un simple efecto de varias ubicaciones. Aglomeración Innovación Biotecnología [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although clearly a key institutional framework that structures planning systems, there has been remarkably little attention by planning historians to the comparative study of institutions of property rights in land as a factor shaping approaches to urban planning. Conversely, planning has clearly functioned as a key site of institutional innovation shaping the evolution of property rights. This relationship between planning and property rights deserves greater attention. Although property rights are often entrenched in written constitutions as is the case in both Japan and the USA, and do exhibit considerable continuity over time, they are in fact seldom static, being subject to evolving interpretations and constraints. This paper employs a historical institutionalist approach in the examination of the evolution of institutions of property rights in Japan during the modern period, from just before the Meiji Revolution of 1867-1868 to the early twenty-first century. The paper shows that the strong protection of landed property rights in Japan is a product of the Meiji period, not the post-Second World War occupation, and argues that institutional choices in framing landed property rights have multiple and varied long-term impacts that may have little to do with the original policy goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kitagawa F. (2007) The regionalization of science and innovation governance in Japan?, Regional Studies 41, 1099-1114. Traditionally a country that has favoured the centralized national direction of industry-science relationships, Japan is gradually transforming its innovation system with the 'regionalization' of science and technology (S&T) policies, characterized by the promotion of 'clusters' and academic entrepreneurship. However, there remain fundamental questions as to the development and actual potential of truly 'regional' governance structures to guide science policy in target areas. This paper examines developments in the governance of science and innovation in Japan, with a particular focus on the policy instruments used, their impact on regional economic development, organizational embeddedness in regions and the ability of regions to coordinate innovation support policies. Kitagawa F. (2007) La régionalisation de la gouvernance de la science et de l'innovation au Japon?, Regional Studies 41, 1099-1114... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature on the videogame industry has to date revealed the importance of pre-existing cultural and technological foundations, firm-level innovation management strategies, interactive innovation with end-users, and uniqueness of national production/innovation systems. There are few theoretically informed empirical studies, however, that investigate geographical dimensions of innovation dynamics, particularly the role of spatial agglomerations, in this ‘hits-based’ cultural industry. This paper focuses on the console videogame industry in Japan, drawing on the extensive research on secondary data, corporate questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews with representatives from videogame firms and organizations in the country. Our premise is that redundancy – a diverse range of often indistinguishably similar outputs, most of which end up as commercial failures – is critically important for innovation in industries that are characterized by fundamental demand uncertainties. We then argue that agglomeration (in the sense of both industrial and urban agglomerations) can play a vital role in accommodating, or ‘tolerating’, such redundancy by allowing constituent firms, whose practice may seem inefficient in the short run, to remain in business. The findings of our study lead us to be cautious about policy initiatives to identify and implement ‘best practices’ for innovation, which may end up replacing critical redundancy with increasing efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While Japan has led the world in certain high-technology industries, such as automobiles and electronics, it has remained a minor player in the global pharmaceutical industry. Japan's leading pharmaceutical firms invest less in R&D and record lower sales than leading global firms. Japan remains a net importer of pharmaceuticals and few Japanese drugs are found outside the country. The global pharmaceutical industry is led by firms from the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, rather than those from Japan. This article explains why the pharmaceutical industry has remained largely in the second tier of Japan's dual economy. For the purposes of this paper, the dual economy refers to the pronounced divide observed between the globally competitive and non-competitive sectors of the Japanese economy. Japan's pharmaceutical industry long subsidised other sectors, including those in the competitive tier, by providing medicines at low prices for a universal health care system. This played a critical role in shaping the industry's domestic orientation. While no single reason explains why pharmaceuticals did not become one of Japan's first tier industries, the major reasons lay in the smaller size of Japanese firms, the lack of R&D incentives, and the government's protectionist policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the evolution of the photovoltaics industry in Australia, Germany and Japan taking a comparative perspective. A modification of the sectoral innovation system framework is used to discuss: knowledge and technologies, actors and interactions, institutions and funding, development of markets and technological structure, as a way to understand the changes. In the process of transition from niche to mass production, national players have specialised in different activities, and the institutions’ building block has been a key determinant. In the case of Australia, it is also the least developed area which ultimately exposes the country to losing its innovation benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, similar management practices in product development, design, supply-chain coordination, marketing arid sales have been used to produce very different products; industrialized housing and automobiles. Manufacturing principles derived from the car industry have been successfully used to produce attractive, customized and affordable homes. But there are limits to which such techniques can be applied to manage the assembly of wide varieties of component parts needed to produce complex customized products. Managers must trade off the need to achieve economies of scale in the production of standardized factory pans with economies of scope in various stages of assembly in order to provide flexibility to satisfy consumer choices. The housing industries can benefit by learning more about the use of advanced manufacturing techniques developed in car production At the same time, automobile makers may learn more about the management of customization from the way in which housing firms organize sales, design and final assembly. The paper suggests that wider ranges of choice can be delivered through managing the whole production system, balancing the use of standard components with flexibility in assembly, rather than by solely attempting to optimize control in discrete parts of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores coal and wood manufacturing in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan as the empirical sites for understanding the material gaps between industrial inputs available locally and the affordances of imported technology. It demonstrates how the process of making coking coals for steel smelting and wooden boards for furniture-making challenge a conceptual framework that assumes that raw materials exist on one side of a binary and manufactured goods on the other. Instead, this article foregrounds the creative ways in which actors approached, redesigned and manufactured raw materials locally, to make them comply with the constraints of imported technologies. In doing so, the article provides a useful counterbalance to scholarly explorations that anchor modern Japan in notions of technology transfer and appropriation, thus failing to recognize the creative labour necessary to making imported technologies work on local ground. By focussing on the labour of matching materials to hardware, this article restores to the historical record the creativity and innovation that formed the fabric of the first wave of Japan's industrialisation and nuances our understanding of raw materials in the history of technology in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University-based patents, by their nature, tend to embody scientific knowledge, which can contribute to technological innovation. University patents, therefore, can be an important catalyst between science and technology. This article examines the contribution of university patents to technological innovation. Using patent citation data, we investigate how the knowledge embodied in university patents influences technological innovation. We conclude that university-based patents convert scientific knowledge into generic knowledge and contribute to technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ELSI refers to "ethical, legal, and social issues/implications" of science and technology (S&T). The term has been gaining currency in Japan over the last 15 years in the context of its national S&T policy. In this essay, we argue that ELSI will become a pivotal concept characterizing the relationship between S&T and social sciences and humanities (SSH) in the country, due particularly to the first-ever amendment to the S&T Basic Law scheduled in April 2021. And because ELSI is recognized as an area of work that STS scholarship should play a major part in, how the local STS community is going to respond to the change this leads to will have a decisive impact on the way in which the relationship becomes characterized. The government's persistent use of the term despite the criticism it has received reveals an assumption underpinning its S&T policy about the way in which the work of SSH contributes to S&T and helps to foster innovation. It is therefore important for the community to challenge such an assumption and reframe the role of SSH, if it believes in the societal value of its scholarship and the critical sensibilities that its research offers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the total factor productivity of 1067 Japanese manufacturing firms. In production estimation, we employ the directional distance function and Luenberger productivity indicator. Research and development strategy survey data are used to analyze the determinant factors related to improvements in innovation and productivity. Our results indicate that increasing technology and knowledge through a ‘black box’ process is related to an increase in productivity. Furthermore, the protection and management of production knowledge and expertise is a valid method of increasing global technical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Japanese response in terms of innovation capacity and entrepreneurship enhancement under the ever-changing economic environment. Particular focus would go to the interactions among government, industry and universities in the national innovation system at a macro level, and entrepreneurship education at the institutional level. Several key universities were selected for discussion. This article argues that under the urge to supplement the internal research and development capacity of Japanese industry and maintain competitiveness, internationalisation efforts through the strong collaboration among government, universities and industry are essential to further the development of national innovation and entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In contrast to the rapid development of outbound tourism since the 1980s, inbound tourism has played a minor role in Japan until 2002, when the Japanese government embarked on a policy of active enticement of foreign tourists. Through active promotion and pushed by economic development in neighboring countries, visitor numbers almost doubled from 4,771,555 in 2001 to 8,350,835 in 2008; since then, worldwide economic downturn, disaster, and a soaring yen have taken their toll. However, while their contribution to the overall Japanese tourism market is still well below 10%, an analysis of available data shows that foreign tourists are spread unevenly across the country. As a result, some restricted inbound clusters have evolved. In these places, inbound tourism as a new sector of the tourism market can play an important role in rejuvenation of destinations and innovation in tourism. One such destination is Hida Takayama, a historical town tucked away in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture, which is considered a model for the development of inbound tourism in Japan. An analysis of Takayama's tourism development process identified close cooperation between the public and private sector, the integration of inbound promotion into a wider set of tourism policies, and the combination of independent efforts by the city with active use of national policies as important factors for its formation as an international destination. As a result, the city attracts tourists from a variety of regions. A survey conducted with Japanese and different groups of foreign tourists proved that they differ in motivations and behavior and, therefore, add a stabilizing element to the tourism market. Finally, interviews with key persons from tourism associations and the accommodation industry, and a survey of small-scale businesses to examine innovations induced by the increase in foreign tourists showed that an active embracement of the new market segment is restricted to a small number of facilities. Through these steps of analysis, it could be shown that the impact of international tourism on destinations in Japan is limited to a number of places, where it nevertheless constitutes an important element of market stabilization and rejuvenation. However, its influence and potential for innovation are confined to some facilities within the destination, while the many small businesses forming the tourism industry often react in a passive way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study aims to provide an overall revelation of the magnitude, frame, flow, and output creation effect of cross-national and cross-sectoral spillover of innovation within Asia. Methodologically, Dietzenbacher's framework for evaluating the innovative spillover effect is modified and extended to a cross-national and cross-sectoral context for accommodating this purpose, accompanied by the utilization of the Asian International I/O (AIO) table for the year 2000. Several results are thus achieved: (1) For the spillover structure, it is understood that the inter-sectoral dependence and vertical specialization in production serves as the nexus for the skeleton of rent spillover. (2) The extent of process innovative spillover is at a level of approximately 90%, while the extent of product innovative spillover is roughly in the 40-50% range. (3) On average, a 1% process innovation would create the total Asian output by a 0.0025-0.1387% margin, and a 1% product innovation would contribute 0.0010-0.0575% of the total output. (4) The United States, Japan, and China rank as the top three countries equipped with the capability of creating the most plentiful innovative spillover effect on the Asian region overall. (5) The United States and Japan still occupy the position of leading flying geese to date, while China might emerge as an industrial innovative leading flying goose in the near future. (6) Under the prerequisite of regional development, this study has tabulated the sector rankings according to the strength of overall spillover effect by country as a reference for tactically reallocating industrial and innovative policy from a regional development perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan is currently confronting a serious decline in medical device innovation. We identified some of the many barriers posed by the current clinical development system in Japan, as they relate to academia, industry and regulatory agencies: a scarcity of medical engineering and bioengineering scientists, two separate categories of clinical trials in Japan, a high level of uncertainty in any R&D schedule, leading to stagnation in the development of medical devices. We propose a new clinical development system (CDS) to stimulate medical device development in Japan, with a central body to facilitate the CDS process with appropriate coordination of interdisciplinary and translational research, and through rational public funding arrangements. With the recommendations, a new organization (Council on Health Research Promotion) has been established in the cabinet of office of Japan, and is expected to work in an effective and efficient manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a sea change in the way policy-makers around the world see the economic role of universities. With the rise of the knowledge economy, universities are regarded as potential engines of growth, capable of contributing not only to the creation of individual companies, but also of new industries. This is the reason why Japan has been far from alone in emphasizing university-industry relationships and their role in industrial innovations since the late 1990s. The objective of this article is to examine the economic roles played by Japanese universities and the factors that helped or inhibited them from becoming engaged with the economy. More specifically, the article discusses how their roles changed through three distinct periods: the late nineteenth century to the 1950s when Japanese universities were very active economically, the 1950s-80s when they became somewhat removed from the industrial development process and the 1980s onwards when they began to re-engage with the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The studies presented in this collection have outlined some of the significant and emerging changes in the patterns of innovation in Japan, illustrating with examples from across diverse industries and business sectors, and developing arguments from a number of internal and external perspectives. This concluding contribution highlights aspects of the human dimension informing the enduring myths and emerging patterns of innovation in Japan. It develops from the premise that innovation as a managed process proceeds - and succeeds or fails - through consideration of the individual and collective efforts of people. The people in this case are Japanese; the focus is on how they interact as employees, as managers, as inventors and as entrepreneurs. The emphasis is on how their combined efforts and imagination serve to shape what management scholars and business analysts describe as the emerging and enduring 'national innovation system' of Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-1990s, Japan has instituted a series of policy reforms in order to encourage greater university participation in commercial activity. Using data from a survey of scientists in engineering and biomedical fields in Japanese universities, we find that there has been a significant increase in commercial activity during this period, in particular, links to small- and medium-sized enterprises. We also find that scientists are increasingly considering business potential when choosing projects. However, we find little evidence of the increasing commercialization leading to barriers to access to research tools. We also find that, despite the growing importance of formalized university-industry ties, university-industry linkages continue to be dominated by informal ties and gift-exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The processes and structures in the retail sector in Japan frequently are characterised as very traditional. Since the decade of slow growth in the 1990s a small group of medium-sized retail firms have adopted strategies that have allowed growth in sales and profit. These medium-sized firms, that are present in several sub-sectors of retailing, are becoming, through strategies focused on localisation and ‘newness’, the role models and catalysts for a more general change that is spreading through Japanese retailing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]