Abstract
Japan has lost its industrial competitiveness on the global market for the past years. One of the reasons for reduced competitiveness is insufficient attention to the adverse influence of the WTO/TBT regime against Japanese industries in the manufacturing sector. Japan failed in paying an appropriate attention to the fact that competition under the WTO/TBT would no longer be one on a product quality which had long been a Japan's strength. Japan failed in recognizing that more attention should be paid to the strategic aspect of participation to standard-setting processes at the ISO/IEC. This paper discusses the latest governmental action plan on national standardization activities, and impact of the WTO/IEC framework. This paper also discusses staffing issues for more involvement in the international standardization arena.
