The International Electrotechnical Commission, an international organization dealing with international technical standard and specifications on all fields of electric and electronic engineering, has established a new commission to accelerate discussions on management issues, in response to rapid changes in technology. IEC intends to secure fairness in the process of establishing standards by forming a consensus among the member countries on every step of the work. This has resulted in a period of three or four years for final edition of a standard, and prevalence of "de facto standard" in areas in which technology changes are particularly rapid. To cope with this situation, IEC plans to offer a platform for fair competition and information. This means a major policy change as an international organization for technology standardization. Japanese technological strategy is now focusing increasingly on accumulation and utilization of its own technological assets. Tasks related to this change include acquisition of intellectual property rights for the technological assets, harmonization of technological standards with the international level, and compilation of databases. The Japanese industry has been making progress in acquiring patents. The two other tasks should be addressed jointly by the industry, academia and government. Hey for the activity included competent engineers and continuous, proper distribution of resources. A social climate in which engineers working in these fields are held in esteem is a prerequisite for recruiting qualified people.

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Promoting academia-industry cooperation is one of the major elements in the Science and Technology Basic Plan. The paper reviews issues and challenges involved in realization of the plan with reference to the corresponding systems in the U.S. The author's proposals include: more patent applications from the Japanese national universities; more efficient use of financial resources by universities; promoting deeper understanding of the business culture in the academic circle; encouraging the Japanese industry's challenge to innovative technologies; and participation of younger generations in policymaking processes concerning science and technology.

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Highly original scientific and technological research, a prerequisite for Japan's survival, needs a new type of research organizations (Hy-Labos) that allows integration of the different cultures of industrial, governmental and academic research communities. In the context of the global competition in science and technology, realistic, practical reformation of R&D systems are necessary. The Hy-Labo is an experimental organization that provides a research environment without restrictions as in the traditional systems, which will inevitably resist any drastic reform, although such reform is absolutely necessary to realize the principles of the Science and Technology Policy Plan, including: flexible research organizations, mobility of researchers, competitive research environment, strictt evaluations by independent bodies, flexible financing, inter-organizational information exchange, social feedback of research results, incentives for researchers and research institutions, and harmonization of natural sciences with humanities and social sciences. A plan of a Kanto Hy-Labo at Tsukuba city ids under planning, as a sort of "Silicon Valley of Japan", which will carry out the most advanced research projects, promote utilization by the private sector of research fundaments provided by the government, and serve as a symbol of national priority on science to appeal the youth. A similar institution in the Kansai area is also envisaged, which will compete with the Kanto Hy-Labo to activate research activities nationally.

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While Japan has considered public research unprofitable and relied upon govern mental organizations in conducting such research, the U.K. and New Zealand have restructured some of their national research institutes as a part of administrative reform. The British governmental research activities have now gone to agencies as an executive sector of the administration independent from the government offices. Some activities have been further sold to, or put under control of the private sector. The New Zealand government acts now as a purchaser, rather than the producer, of public goods, and the national research institutes in New Zealand have been cast into an independent company, Crown Research Institute, whose shareholder is the government. This paper summarizes the management, organization, personnel administration and finance of those new research units. The experiences of the two countries invite us to consider (1) services that government-supported research institutes should provide, (2) relationships of such institutes with the beneficiaries, and (3) preferable organization principles of institutes for public research.

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The deficit in Japanese public finance, one of rationales for administrative reform, is growing serious as in other industrial countries. The administrative reform will involve the management of national research institutes, of which the representatives has been participating in the Administrative Reform Council. A proposal has been made to reorganize the national research institutes as agencies, apparently conceived according to the British precedent. The author has reviewed the administrative systems of national research institutes in some other countries. The survey shows that the institutes controlled by ministries related to industrial policy, as in Britain, New Zealand and Australia, are focus of serious discussions for privatization, while no such move is seen for institute under control of governmental agencies for education and science. This suggests that affinity of research institutes to the industry tends to suggest privatization. Similar proposal will probably be made for the Japanese system in which the Ministries of International Trade and Industry and of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have their own research institutes.

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The present paper reviews the evaluation of research and development (R&D) in enterprises, with particular emphasis on that in Japanese firms exposed to rapid changes in competitive environment. Existing studies on the evaluation of R&D are reviewed an classified into seven types. The author then discusses new postulations to the evaluation of R&D arising from changes in business environment, particularly in competitive situations. Five new criteria are proposed: 1) Does the R&D realize people's desire? 2) Are the business, products and technologies involved fascinating? 3) Does the R&D have impacts on global industrial trends? 4) Will the R&D produce global standards? 5) Will the R&D keep the edge in severe international competition? The conclusion proposes a concept of the overall evaluation capacity, defined as (organizational capacity concerning evaluation)×(evaluation criteria)×(corporate culture concerning evaluation), and makes five remarks on its improvement.

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Government agencies have been under severe criticism by media in recent days. Actual problems do exist about some government officials and their organizations that do not fit the present situations. However, the policies and efforts of MITI in the reconstruction and fosterage of the national industry once destroyed in WWII should appropriately be held in high esteem. The present paper describes how MITI helped economic growth in the postwar Japan with their policies centered on the Foreign Capital Law, designed for the introduction of advanced technologies to reconstruct and enhance the Japanese industry then far behind the level the American and European industries had reached, and how those policies matched social and institutional reforms during and after the war. The paper also gives a historical overview of MITI's policies on the auto movive industry including planning; technology licensing; import of parts, raw materials and equipment; taxation; and financing. The gas turbine is discussed as an example of the effects of early technological basis on the current competitiveness of manufacturers, which illustrates the importance of governmental policy in the fosterage of industry

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Unlike circumstances for economic or educational issues, strong interest in science and technology of public is not necessarily accompanied by deep understanding. Promotion of public acceptance of science and technology requires a larger population knowledgeable of scientific terms and scientific methods, which also contributes to constructive debates on policy matters. A problem for Japan is its public has a scientific literacy lower than that in other countries. Other problems include the decreased interest in science among youth, and empoverished academic environment. These problems will never be solved without public support. Universities and research institutions should be more aware of their social responsibilities and more active in communications with the public, while citizens including policy makers should be acquainted with the scientific outlook.

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企業の税前利益(税引前利益の略称)の極大化は製品(群)の(下限)販売単価が特定の極大化(下限)販売単価と合致することにより実現するが、日本の多くの製造業企業ではすでにこれに近い状態にあると推定される理由について論じた。また極大化(下限)販売単価は外部経営環境の変動によっても変化することを定量的に明らかにした。次に製品市場を含めた企業社会に市場原理が有効に機能し続ければ、やがて企業経営活動の主要側面は「永続的な成長と繁栄」の実現に対して最適化した状態に収斂するとした。この状態には「税前利益の極大化」、「限界利益と研究開発費の比率の平準化」、「従業員1人当りの売上高の平準化」、「上市製品の付加価値倍率の固有値への収斂」および「研究開発費対売上高比率および限界利益率の販売単価依存性の画一化」が含まれることを示し、日本の多くの製造業企業ではすでにこの状態に収斂していると推定した。最後に、このシミュレーションモデル(の主要経営指標群の表示式に関する部分)は、記述の対象となる系がいずれも上述の最適化状態にあることを前提にしていると結論した。

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Production is a basic function of a manufacturing firm. This paper quantitatively clarifies what production management brings high corporate performance, high growth and profitability, in Japan. The firms that heavily invest in production equipment, keeping a new equipment ratio and a mechatronics equipment ratio high, show high performance. So do the firms that highly utilize their production equipment; and highly use outside processing taking advantage of a network industrial structure. The firms that are self-confident about their product quality and those that believe that the sales point of their products is technical originality and not a brand name show high performance. When diversifying businesses, the firms that target market related areas and not technology related areas show high performance. As for human resource management, the firms that pay good attention show high performance: they provide many capacity development measures to employees and motivate factory workers by making work contents interesting.

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本稿は、日本の製薬企業における研究開発活動を企業ごとに相対的に評価するものであり、企業の保有する潜在的な技術力がどのくらい研究開発成果に結びついているかを評価することを目的としている。研究開発の取り組み方には企業ごとに特徴があることを考慮して、可変ウェイトを用いた分析法であるDEA(Data Envelopment Analysis)を適用する。ここでは、研究開発のインプットとして各年の研究開発費より求めた研究開発ストックを用い、また、アウトプットとして公告特許数、市場で商品化された新薬数を用いている。 DEAを用いて、1977〜1991年における製薬企業14社の研究開発活動の評価を行った。14社をそれぞれの年ごとにDEAを用いて分析し、それぞれの年におけるDEA効率的な企業を示し、また、DEAの拡張モデルを用いて分析し、それぞれの企業がいずれの年においてDEA効率的であったかを示した。結論として、DEAは企業ごとの研究開発の特徴を考慮した上での研究開発活動を評価する1つの有効な方法であると考える。

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Federal government's support in the USA for research and development in biomedicine is mainly managed by the NIH (National Institutes of Health). The NIH peer-review system by which the NIH funds all universities and non-profit organizations to support their biomedical research is described. The department (Division of Research Grants, DRG) that reviews the merit of proposed research is clearly separated from the various Institutes and Centers (ICs) that fund the research grants. The decision to support a research project is based both on the scientific merit and the priority of the IC funding mission. The review of the scientific merit is conducted by a panel of experts under the administration of a doctoral level scientist. The Program Directors who manage the grant portfolios in the ICs are also scientists with impressive publication records. The peer-review process is very efficient and handles about 30,000grants per year. The applicants receive the evaluation of their proposed research in written documents called the Summary Statements, which identify the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed research. Applicants have an opportunity to write in a protest letter called the Rebuttal letter if they feel the review was flawed. However, such complaints are rare and are usually resolved in a amicable fashion. Special emphasis is placed to encourage young scientists. In the NIH there are more meritorious applications reviewed than funded to support them. The number of applicants that can be funded is dependent upon the budget allocated by the USA congress. Finally, scientists who work in the universities and colleges have academic freedom to pursue research of their choice.

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