The Journal of Science Policy and Research Management

Science and Technology in Higher Education

Shinichi YAMAMOTO

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 298-299
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_298

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It is commonly accepted that education, research and social contribution are the three major objectives of the university. The relative importance of each function is, however, not unanimously evaluated. In addition to our common understanding at JSSPRM that universities are important entities for science and technology, it is known that Japanese academicians, while being generally. regarded as educators by the administration, tend to prefer to qualify their principal attribute as researchers rather than educators, probably because of greater social recognition of research activities than education, and the importance of research performance as factor for their professional evaluation. Recently, however, the significance of the university education has been attracting attention in response to increased diversity of universities, employment difficulties graduates are facing, and decrease in the under-18 population. In fact, the university should be understood in both research and educational aspects. This is hopefully a promising research subject for JSSPRM with its membership of a variety of backgrounds.

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SPECIAL REPORTS: CHANGE OF SUPPORTING INDUSTRIES IN ASIA : CATCH UP OF ASIAN EMERGING COUNTRIES AND THE MEASURES TO KEEP JAPANESE SUPERIORITY

[in Japanese], [in Japanese]

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 300-301
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_300

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Role of Supporting Industries and Their Contribution to National Industrial Competitiveness(<SPECIAL REPORT>CHANGE OF SUPPORTING INDUSTRIES IN ASIA: CATCH UP OF ASIAN EMERGING COUNTRIES AND THE MEASURES TO KEEP JAPANESE SUPERIORITY)

Toshiyuki BABA

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 302-308
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_302

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The supporting industries have recently been attracting attention as important contributors to the national economy in either developing or developed countries: excellent supporting industries in a country strengthens linkages between various industrial sectors and improves the trade balance, chiefly in developing countries, and supports research and development, contributing to the competitiveness of developed countries. For example, high-quality molds and dies have increased the productivity by 10,000 times, and also contributed to innovations. The usefulness of the supporting industry depends on the national economic strategy and decisions: haphazard fostering ones may only result in higher costs. Under favorable market and competitive conditions, however, the supporting industries will be fruitful at any phase of industrial development.

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Development of Korean Mold and Die Industry and the Future of Japanese Competitive Edge : Successful catching-up and needs of innovation(<SPECIAL REPORT>CHANGE OF SUPPORTING INDUSTRIES IN ASIA: CATCH UP OF ASIAN EMERGING COUNTRIES AND THE MEASURES TO KEEP JAPANESE SUPERIORITY)

Toshiyuki BABA

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 309-321
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_309

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The present work examines the development and international competitiveness of the die and mold industry in South Korea, and discusses possible measures for maintaining the competitive edge of the Japanese counterpart. The trade statistics for 1996-2000 showed that Korean exports of molds grew by a factor of 2.6 in the period from 1996 to 2000 while imports were halved. As for dies, exports grew rapidly by a factor of 35.2 from 1996 to 2008, while imports decreased to less than one third, thus changing the balance to excess of export. The trade specialization ratio increased in the same period from 0.4 to 0.8 for molds and from -0.8 to 0.9 for dies. On the other hand, changes in the unit price competitiveness suggest that the growth of die exports resulted from low prices. A field survey revealed that the catching-up of process has been promoted by a strategic alliance of industry, government and academia. After the success of the strategy, Korea's present problem is how to establish orientation to innovation. Japan is now inferior to Korea in prices but maintains the superiority in product quality. It needs further promotion of innovation, along with effective inheritance of technology, new business models and industry-academia collaboration, to maintain the superiority.

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Innovation to Frontier-Type Die and Mold Technologies : In case of glass-molding technology(<SPECIAL REPORT>CHANGE OF SUPPORTING INDUSTRIES IN ASIA: CATCH UP OF ASIAN EMERGING COUNTRIES AND THE MEASURES TO KEEP JAPANESE SUPERIORITY)

Tatsuhiko AIZAWA

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 322-326
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_322

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Die and mold industries started from their technological transfer from USA after World War II, advanced with economical development in Japan and have grown as a top runner all over the world. Owing to long-term economical recession and catching up by Korea and China, they approach to turning point in future. The glass molding industry has already encountered this difficulty due to rapid reduction of domestic products like brown-tube type television sets and CRT. In the present paper, this macroscopic change in the domestic market is statistically described together with microscopic damage in the glass molding companies. In particular, original glass molding technologies were abolished by shrinkage of domestic brown-tube markets and defeated by liquid crystal display at the same time. Standing on this understanding, necessity of frontier technologies is stressed to strengthen the domestic glass molding industries by new linkage between glass-material and optical device makers. New type of up-streaming and down-streaming die and mold technologies is proposed to maintain the domestic production sites as a sustainable strategy for Japan die and mold industry.

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Structural Change and Technological Choice in the Steel Industry in Asia(<SPECIAL REPORT>CHANGE OF SUPPORTING INDUSTRIES IN ASIA: CATCH UP OF ASIAN EMERGING COUNTRIES AND THE MEASURES TO KEEP JAPANESE SUPERIORITY)

Hajime SATO

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 327-337
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_327

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The steel industry in Asia has been going through a significant structural change. The change is driven by technological progress and choice in iron and steel making, in addition to the growth in steel demand and changes in policy. Most importantly, there are significant differences in steel production technologies in terms of initial investment and minimum-efficient scale. Accordingly, the catch-up strategy of latecomers in steel production is heavily affected by available finance and market size. On the one hand, integrated steel firms characterized by mammoth blast furnaceshave been strengthening their production network by exporting mother products such as slabs and hot coils to their affiliated firms abroad that specialize in the rolling processes. On the other hand, local firms in countries which have no large blast furnaces have been making an effort to substitute the imports of mother products with newly available technologies with less initial investment and less minimum-efficient scale. The interaction among these firms has been an important aspect of the changes in the steel industry in Asia, especially since the 1990s.

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Mechanism of Technical Development in Japanese Machine Tool Industry : Co-evolution of NC equipment and machine tools through modularity(<SPECIAL REPORT>CHANGE OF SUPPORTING INDUSTRIES IN ASIA: CATCH UP OF ASIAN EMERGING COUNTRIES AND THE MEASURES TO KEEP JAPANESE SUPERIORITY)

Tomoatsu SHIBATA

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 338-347
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_338

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Japan's machine tool production was in the top position for 25 years since 1982, but decreased in 2009 by 56.5% from the level in the previous year, lowering the rank to the third and yielding the top position to China. The technical level of the machine tool industry in a country is indicative of its technology base. What happened in the competitiveness of the sector of strategic importance even for its relatively small market? Examination of the official trade statistics up to 2008 permitted to discern the trade structure of machine tools in East Asia and Japan's position in it. It was revealed that Japan has always enjoyed export surplus in this sector, indicating its technological competitiveness intact. The author argue that a coevolution mechanism between the NC equipment and machine tools has been at work as an important factor that supported the development of Japan's machine tool industry.

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Technology Development and Plant Investment in the Semiconductor and FPD Industries : Implication of location and agglomeration in East Asia(<SPECIAL REPORT>CHANGE OF SUPPORTING INDUSTRIES IN ASIA: CATCH UP OF ASIAN EMERGING COUNTRIES AND THE MEASURES TO KEEP JAPANESE SUPERIORITY)

Akio KONDO

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 348-362
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_348

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Trends in the rapid development of the semiconductor and FPD industries in East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan are described in terms of technology, investment and interdependence, and its effects on the supporting industries via geographic locations and agglomeration. The two sectors based on the silicon processing technology and share many features such as large plant investments and geographic concentration. In East Asia, development of these sectors as world-class production centers has prompted evolution of the supporting industries, thus building up industry agglomerations. This suggests that the semiconductor and FPD industries, for which proximity to manufacturers of equipment and materials and integration of the production with R & D are important, have profited from agglomeration economies.

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[title in Japanese]

Article type: Bibliography
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 363-367
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_363

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Factors Discouraging Female Engineering Students from Going on to a Master Course/a Doctoral Course

Yoko KOINUMA

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 369-382
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_369

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In Japan various studies have been made to identify factors discouraging female students from choosing science, technology or engineering when they enter university. Meanwhile little attention has been paid to the situations of female students who are majoring these areas at the university. An institute of technology conducted a survey of female students to learn their surroundings at the institute, and published its results. In this paper the results were analyzed to identify factors discouraging female students of the institute from entering a master course/a doctoral course. It was found that a rumor that more education would bring female students more difficulties to find a work prevails in the institute and many females rush into getting a job. Another finding is that quite a few master course female students get unfavorable feelings toward the university laboratory, its atmosphere, its isolation from the society, its inefficiency, etc., and choose to work for companies.

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University-Industry-Government Collaboration in Bio-Clusters : Policy evaluation based on patent data

Junichi NISHIMURA, Yosuke OKADA

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 383-399
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_383

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We evaluate the three bio-cluster projects in Japan initiated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry since 2001 in terms of university-industry collaboration (UIC), using 3,020 biotechnology patents of 344 firms. We identify UIC patents by investigating the affiliations of 4,263 inventors in detail. The estimation results can be summarized as follows. First, the value of collaborative patents applied by cluster participants is higher than other types of collaborative patents. Second, the value of patents applied by cluster participants gets higher since the cluster projects started in 2001. Third, in particular, the patents applied by UIC within bioclusters become more valuable. These results imply that firms participating in the bio-cluster projects improve their quality-adjusted R & D productivity through UIC within clusters.

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Does Tax Credit for R & D Induce Additional R & D Investment? : Analysis on the effects of gross R & D credit in Japan

Koichiro ONISHI, Akiya NAGATA

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 24 Issue 4 Pages 400-412
Published: December 17, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.24.4_400

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In this paper, we try to examine whether the tax credit program for gross R & D enforced in 2003 induced additional R & D investment in Japanese firms. We apply difference-in-difference model to estimate the impact of the tax credit by using the firm level data of the official statistics. We find no evidence that the firms which received the new tax credit significantly increase. their R & D expenditure as compared to non received ones. Our result doesn't change though we use several sub-samples to check its robustness. This indicates that there is room to improve existing tax credit program for R & D in Japan.

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