This paper attempts to critically examine the "Japan Problem" in science and technology (abbreviated "Japan Problem" below") from the viewpoint of the sociology of science. "Japan Problem" contains at least 3 aspects; national policy, R&D management and culture. This paper particularly elucidates how the cultural aspect of "Japan Problem" manifests itself, by means of constructivism in the sociology of science. This paper argues that a couple of mechanisms are working behind the cultural aspect of "Japan Problem". A self-strengthening structure of "Japan Problem", owing to properly mobilizing traditional and modern (or post-modern) elements of Japanese society in formulating "Japan Problem" in abroad, makes it extremely difficult for the Japanese to find unique solution which enables a logically consistent response to the problem on the one hand; the linear model in relating the performance of science, technology and economy, together with the relative dissatisfaction of foreign countries with their economic performance, trigger off the potential "Japan Problem" under the self-strengthening structure, on the other hand. Policy implications shall be suggested with respect to how should basic research be placed within Japanese culture, based upon a couple of the mechanisms mentioned above through which "Japan Problem" is supposed to manifest itself.

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This article explains the Information Asset Map as a method of analysing effective product development patterns in industrial competition. Today the needs of markets are becoming more diverse and sophisticated, with the role of the development of new products becoming more important in world industries. A products reliability, which means not only appearance, price, individual functions etc., but also balances of functions and consumers' satisfaction, become important, and the total competitive power of an enterprise depends on of product developments, performance. Therefore, keeping the framework of the information system approach, we amend it and recommend the information Asset Map for analysing the details of the system of product development. Using this map, we can collect and comprise data on the production development process and identify which process must be improved in order to intensify competitive power. As an example here, we examine empirical data of international car industries in the 1980s. Though the characteristics of the Maps vary in every industry, it is thought it could be a basis for analysing the whole enterprise organization from the viewpoint of the information system. Through this revised approach, we can analyse the interrelation between a producer and consumers, innovation and competition, R&D and other departments in an enterprize.

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The level of the government funding of university research is a fundamental and important indicator of a government's attitude toward basic research. However, a definition of government funding of university research and its estimation method are not fixed in Japan. There are several important statistic resources concerning the government funding of university research: (i) the survey of Research and Development (Statistics Bureau, Management and Coordination Agency), (ii) OECD's science and technological indicators, (iii) the budget for universities of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (Monbusho), (iv) the budget for science and technology of Monbusho, (v) the accounting data of universities, (vi) the estimation pursued by Irvine and Martin. This paper describes data handling and estimation manners in these statistic resources to clarify mutual relationships among them. Especially, methodological errors of the estimation (ii), and the estimation method (iv) are introduced for the first time in this paper. This paper points out following questions concerning estimation methods: (i) technical problems in FTE (Full-time Equivalent) adjustment such as double adjustment, contents of wages and salaries, and a coefficient of FTE, (ii) institutional problems, (iii) perception gaps between actual R&D activities and statistical data. The estimation of the government funding of university research is very confusing. Every statistical resource has defects. To correct the defects, it is necessary to make clear the definitions of the Survey of R&D and to reexamine the manner of data aggregation and classification.

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From my experience in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the I describe the changing relations of politics to scientific technology, mainly nuclear power. My study covers the years between X and the present. The development of technology has changed world politics. We must recognize, at first, world politics and economies are formed on the basis of information infrastructure, eg. TV, satellites, and transportation power, such as big ships or jet airplanes, carrying people and products cheaply and in large quantities all over the world. In the past the development of nuclear power was the urgent problem for world politics, now the reduction of armaments is the major international political problem that remains to be settled. It must be noted that the reduction of missiles was made possible only be detailed information collected by advanced satellite and radar technology. The reduction of armaments influenced world trade and the manufacturing industries of the world, great parts of which were occupied by arms production. The reduction of nuclear weapons contains difficult technical and political problems. Since the commercial use of plutonium and the outflow of nuclear engineers to the third world is still problematic, these factors will complicate international relations cooperative. However, in the new area of R&D, biotechnology, nuclear fusion, etc., corporative projects between nations have become necessary, and these matters have taken on the characteristic of internationalization.

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This paper proposes a new methodology for mapping the relations developed sequentially among co-author and co-inventor teams by using intellectual product databases, namely patent databases and academic literature databases, which are available to the public. The methodology is applied to analyzing the dynamics of the co-author and co-inventor relations in one of the major electronic manufacturers on the technology relating to video cassette recorders. The characteristics of charts representing R&D network dynamics are discussed. From the viewpoint of R&D management, the viabilities of this methodology for discussion various aspects are mentioned.

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技術予測には技術的可能性と社会的受容性の両面を考慮する必要があるが,後者を体系付けて技術動向を予測したものは余り見られない。そこで我々は個人〜社会のニーズ・ウォンツ(欲求)をその主体とレベルで作られる平面上に位置付け,過去の技術開発・製品化事例をポジショニングして考察することで,マクロな技術・市場動向予測を試みた。まず欲求の主体を地球(人類),国家,社会,企業,個人の5つに分け,それぞれMaslowの欲求5段階/生存,安全,帰属,尊敬,自己表現/に相当する豊かさのレベルを設定し,デマンドマトリクスと呼ぶ表形式で表した。次いでPCM符号化技術,フロン,電子スチルカメラおよび過去のヒット商品のいくつかの技術開発と市場への浸透過程をこのマトリクス上にプロットすることにより成功する技術戦略をパターン化した。このような検討の結果,1)欲求が満たされつつある価値(ボーダー領域)は経時的に変化するものの開発に成功した技術・製品はほとんどボーダー領域にポジショニングされること,2)技術・製品開発の成功・失敗例は基本的に6つのパターンに分類できること,3)これらのパターンを適用することにより技術予測において社会的受容性の確認が可能となること等を確認した。さらに,本研究の方法を信号制御システム,TV電話,リニア新幹線の3例を取りあげて,これらの今後の望ましい技術開発戦略の姿を検討した。

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