This new book discusses the extent to which the Japanese economy encourages entrepreneurship and innovation. Although Japan has a strong reputation as an innovator, some people argue that this reputation is misplaced. Contrary to earlier expectations, the USA rather than Japan emerged as the leader in the biotech industries in the 1990s, and also many small firms in Japan supply only a few – or just one – other company, thereby limiting their view of the marketplace and the commercial opportunities within it. Despite the increase of international patents, international scientific citations and a positive technology trade balance, the Japanese innovation system is weak in giving birth to radical innovations. The book explores fully these issues, making comparisons with other countries where appropriate. It concludes that the Japanese innovation system has both advantages and disadvantages and contributes to a better understanding of how policy changes take place.

Institutional and technological change is a highly topical subject. At the theoretical level, there is much debate in the field of institutional economics about the role of technological change in endogenous growth theory. At a practical policy level, arguments rage about how Japan and the Japanese economy should plan for the future. In this book, leading economists and economic historians of Japan examine a range of key issues concerning institutional and technological change in Japan, rigorously using discipline-based tools of analysis, and drawing important conclusions as to how the process of change in these areas actually works. In applying these ideas to Japan, the writers in this volume are focusing on an issue which is currently being much debated in the country itself, and are helping our understanding of the world’s second-largest economy.

Product Description: Many recent books on information and communication technologies concentrate on individual country experiences or neglect to analyze political factors in conjunction with entrepreneurial ones. This book, the result of an international research project, comprises a comprehensive comparison of three key countries: Japan, the United States and Germany...read more

Product Description: Der "mittelstandische Unternehmer" und der "Entrepreneur" sind in Japan derzeit Themen von hochster Aktualitat. Die Grunde liegen in der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung der 90er Jahre: Wie in Deutschland, so wird auch in Japan ein Ruckgang der Innovationsfahigkeit und von Beschaftigungsmoglichkeiten befurchtet...read more