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Professor, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Graduate School
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http://dndi.jp/12-furukawa/furukawa_7.php
DND Correspondence: Optional Proposals
on Innovation
In the Special Meeting Room of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the (1st) informal meeting on the Innovation Superhighway Plan was held on Nov. 2nd.
A meeting of Industrial Science and Technology Policy Division(*YΖ\’Rcο), it was chaired by Takeshi Kimura, the Committee Chairman for YΖ\’Rcο; with Tadashi Hirata (Consultant, Kyowa Hakko); Director Kikkai of AIST; Vice President Hikarikawa of NEDO; and from METI, Kojima Deputy Director-General Science and Technology Environment Division (*YΖZpΒ«Η·), Furutani YΖZpSRc― and others were present for the two hour discussion.
METI reported that this meeting was set up to implement the Innovation Superhighway Plan, with March '07 as the goal. The issues will be selected and scrutinized in December '06; hearings for universities, industrial circles and NEDO, held in January '07; and decisions quickly brought forth twice a month until March.
The Innovation Superhighway Plan does not deal with a particular research project but purports to clarify the means for efficient implementation of government-led innovation projects described in the third Basic Plan on the Science and Technology Policy. It aims to: (1) establish a two-way highway between research and market: (2) elucidate the final destination, the exit, which is the market; (3) fuse knowledge at the junctions of the two; (4) accelerate the innovation into highway speed; (5) lay out the infrastructure to promote autonomous operation of the private sector and universities.
Its relation to each of the Innovation-Generating Strategy of the Cabinet's Council for Science and Technology Policy; Professor Kurokawa's Innovation 25; and Innovation Committee of the Science Council was discussed. The conclusion was that discussions from diverse angles should contribute to the overall Superhighway Plan.
The following is a summary, which also includes my view:
"The Cabinet is considering a broad social, economical, regional,
environmental and cultural innovation, the Science Council supports it,
but as METI we should concentrate the discussions on innovation in industrial
technology. Examples from InnovateAmerica have been introduced, but as
EU has come up with an innovation policy in the 2000 Lisbon Innovation
Declaration, we need to consult it as well. The discussions, although based
on previous issues, should be developed more comprehensively towards the
Superhighway. Personally, I recommend "The American Competitiveness
Initiative and Japan's Task: US's next generation technology strategy and
Japan's countermeasures,"
(Japan Policy Investment Bank *ϊ{τβs H17-6 http://www.dbj.go.jp/japanese/download/pdf/industry_report/r14.pdf),
that takes into account InnovateAmerica (the Palmisano Report)."
It states that for human resource development we initially need to reassess "Leisure Education" and to actively employ foreigners; for investment, to utilize the technology seeds sleeping in big enterprises and to establish IP capitals; and for infrastructure, it proposes a concrete model for technology evaluation. Having a full grasp of its contents will provide a solid basis for our discussions on innovation.
What is significant in industrial innovation is the fact that US is ahead in innovation of all advanced scientific fields (IBNE: Info, Bio, Nano, Environment) except for environment. With the Manufacturing America 2004 policy, U.S. purports to be ahead as well in the manufacturing field, which is the basis of national wealth. EU also has a 'Manufuture 2020' policy aiming to structure a 'knowledge-driven society' with a bird's-eye view of manufacturing technology, working on concrete measures to lead the world in manufacturing.
In our country, as manufacturing is more a competitive area of the private sector, the mainstream argument is against government funding for its innovation, resulting in only a 1% level of government spending so far. Although it appears that 2.6% will be allocated to the manufacturing field next fiscal year, unless increased a few percent more, I fear it may be difficult to maintain our manufacturing GDP of 100 trillion yen, which is the source of national wealth.
We should put our efforts in the innovation of advanced science and technology areas of IBNE to generate new industries, and make use of our strengths in energy conservation, environmental harmony, and innovative production. We should focus more on the fact that our manufacturing industry is flourishing thanks to the high level maintained by small and medium-sized enterprises, which comprise 99% of the enterprises in our country. The core manufacturing industries of today, such as automobile, electronics and household appliances, precision and manufacturing machinery industries, are the end-results of the 'improved' model of innovation generated by the high-level technology of small and medium-sized enterprises. It is important to realize that the Japanese model of innovation is a fusion between this improved model and the scientific (IT, BT, NT) model of innovation. Please refer to the December issue of "Science Council and its Trend" for an in-depth discussion on this subject.
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