Identifying Areas of Leading Edge Japanese Science and Technology: First Interim Report. Activity Analysis Using SIC (Standard Industrial Classes) Categories and Scientific Subfields

摘要

In both science and technology similar patterns emerge. The Japanese share is growing steadily while the U.S. share is shrinking or, at best, holding relatively constant. The growth of Japanese patenting is particularly apparent with the Japanese-invented U.S. patents increasing from approximately 8.8% in 1975 to 16.5% of U.S. patents in 1984. In scientific papers the Japanese increased from approximately 5.1% in 1973 to 7.3% in 1982. The broad areas of emphases of the two countries are also shown to be in strong contrast. In science the Japanese show a particularly emphasis in chemistry and physics with, perhaps, an average emphasis in bioscience. In contrast the United States shows particularly emphasis in earth and space science, and notable emphasis in the biomedical fields of clinical medicine and biomedical research. Field-by-field Japanese and U.S. science activity correlate at -0.90, almost total opposites. In technology also there are sharp contrasts, with Japanese activity notably high in various areas related to electronics, automotive, photography, scientific instrumentation and office computing. These areas of high Japanese activity are also areas in which they have increased their activity over the last ten years: in fact, the Japanese have increased their share in 40 of the 42 different patent product fields. Product field-by-product field Japanese and U.S. technology activity correlate at -0.72, quite opposite in emphasis.