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JAPAN'S USE OF COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH TO BUILD A COMPUTER INDUSTRY: LESSONS FOR THE UK?
Abstract
The announcement by Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1981 of its intention to use government-sponsored collaborative research to lead the world towards ‘Fifth Generation’ computing prompted a sudden enthusiasm for collaboration in Europe and the US. The UK was at the vanguard of this movement to ‘learn from Japan’ and used pre-competitive collaborative research as the central organizing theme of its Alvey Programme to strengthen the country's ability to compete in advanced information technology (IT). While Alvey produced a number of benefits, commercialization of research outputs fell short of popular Western perceptions of Japan's achievements. However, a review of MITI schemes prior to the Fifth Generation announcement reveals that, for the most part, they were neither pre-competitive nor collaborative. Moreover, problems with abstracting the operation of MITI's schemes from other aspects of Japan's national innovation system undermine their value as a model for UK policy.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
Wolferen argues that the metaphor is misleading because “Japan has nothing comparable to a chairman of the board, a president or even a board of directors as a means of providing a unified view on which to base decisions.” K. van Wolferen, The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation, Macmillan, London, 1990, p.58. Also, Hart has noted that there is some dispute within the small group of scholars who write seriously about Japan as to whether the state is central or peripheral to Japan's economic development. J. A. Hart, Rival Capitalists: International Competitiveness in the United States, Japan and Western Europe, Cornell University Press, New York, 1992, p.37.
According to Femá, some 20 other national programs followed the announcement of Japan's FGCS program. G. Ferná, ‘R&D programmes for information technology’, OECD Observer, August/September, 1989, pp.10–13.
The authors were members of a team which evaluated the structure and organisation of both the Alvey Programme and the subsequent Information Engineering Advanced Technology Programme. The views expressed here are entirely their own.
These interviews were conducted by Ray as part of a Science and Technology Agency Fellowship spent at the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP), Tokyo, Japan.
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