mechanism of Japan's industrial science and technology policy

Inducing power of Japanese technological innovation - mechanism of Japan's industrial science and technology policy
Chihiro Watanabe
Yukio Honda

Graduate School of Policy Science, Saitama University, Saitama 338, Japan
Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, MITI, Tokyo 100, Japan

Available online 5 March 2002.

Abstract

This paper examines Japan's industrial science and technology policy in the context of its industrial policy. It tries to explain how that policy is conducted and the functions it performs as a system focusing on the relationship between government and industry, especially the mechanism for inducing industries' vitality. On the basis of both a conceptual framework for understanding the complex interrelationships involved and an empirical analysis of the interrelationships, we find that the machinery of MITI's policy system has been functioning well in building up dynamism conductive to chain reactions resulting in the stimulation of industries' technological development