Research and Development, and the Global Competitiveness

Abstract

While China catching up and the United States undergoing a dynamic transfomation, Japan has lost its “Japan as Number One’position since after the economic bubble burst. According to the World Competitiveness Yearbook issued by Swiss business school IMD, Japan places 24^th overall among the 51 countries in 2007, even though Japan has been spending more and more R&D fund since early 1990. In this short paper, the possible reason of loosing position and the solution are discussed by comparing with the US.