Closing the Gap with the West

By Frederic Golden

Behind for years, Japan declares research a national priority

Until Chemist Kenichi Fukui won a Nobel Prize in 1981 for his mathematical explanation of chemical reactions, he was more widely recognized abroad than at home. Indeed, when he first propounded his novel ideas 30 years ago, many of his Japanese colleagues scoffed.

Foreign recognition changed their attitude, and Fukui, now 64, quickly became a national hero. Says he: "The Japanese are very conservative when it comes to new theory. But once you are appreciated in the U.S. or Europe, the appreciation spreads back to Japan."

For all its technological skills, Japanese science still suffers from a copycat syndrome. The Japanese often feel it is better to mimic or borrow than originate. Says Electrical Engineer Michiyuki Uenohara, director of Nippon Electric's research labs: "The label of imitator is valid--Japanese research is derivative."

But Japan is beginning to realize that it cannot rely forever on such Western inventions as transistors and microchips to fire its industries. Instead of concentrating almost exclusively on developing specific products and technologies (cars, cameras, electronics), the pragmatic Japanese are investing more money and talent in basic research: those inquiries into the fundamental puzzles of nature that usually offer no immediate payoff but can be important stimulants to future growth.

In the fiscal year ending March 1982, government and industry spent a total of $25 billion for research and development, or 2.4% of the gross national product, up four times from a decade earlier and a third of the current U.S. investment in R. and D. (The U.S. also allocates 2.4% of G.N.P. to R. and D., but much of the funding goes into military work.) In the coming years, Japan hopes to devote as much as 3% of its G.N.P. to R. and D., which would make it a world leader in this category. Japan has sharply stepped up technical training, producing 800 Ph.D. scientists and an astonishing 74,000 engineers a year, compared with 18,000 and 88,000 in the U.S.

Since World War II, the Japanese have won four Nobel Prizes in science and medicine, fewer than Britain (41), West Germany (14) or France (6), all countries with significantly smaller populations, and much fewer than the U.S. (109). But that is likely to change as Japan increases its government investment in science. It is already a world leader in such high-tech fields as microelectronics, robotics and communications. Less well known are

Japanese strides in agriculture. One example: new hybrid varieties of rice that grow so fast they can produce two crops annually in colder climes.

Despite a national controversy about nuclear power, the Japanese are building a prototype breeder reactor and experimental fusion devices as large as any under construction in the U.S. Experiments are under way to tap the abundant geothermal energy of Japan's volcanoes. In seismology, the Japanese are aggressively looking for early warning signals in their tremulous terrain. Though initially dependent on help from NASA, Japan's space agency is now launching satellites with its own rockets, and will attempt to intercept Halley's comet when that celestial object races around the sun in 1986; similar U.S. plans have been dropped. Even in fields where they are clearly behind, such as genetic engineering and cell biology, important to their national goal of finding a cancer cure, the Japanese have organized an effort to catch up with the West.

The showcase of Japanese science is a sprawling 70,000-acre complex 37 miles northeast of Tokyo called Tsukuba Science City. Nestled amid pine groves and rice paddies in the shadow of 2,874-ft. Mount Tsukuba are 50 government and private research centers and an affiliated university. Founded in 1963 as part of a national "seeds for the future" effort in science and technology, Tsukuba Science City now has an annual government budget of $600 million and a staff of 7,000 scientists, engineers and technicians. Their investigations extend from high-energy physics (using a 12 billion electron volt accelerator) to searches for new lightweight, heat-resistant materials. In one cavernous seven-story building nicknamed the "rainmaker house," researchers are simulating weather in order to understand rain-induced mudslides, a recurring problem in Japan. Another laboratory contains a huge "shaking table" on which large model structures are tested for their ability to endure quakes.

Some Japanese scientists still feel, however, that there is too much rigidity in their research laboratories. Those familiar with the more informal American systems, where promising young investigators are often encouraged to go their individualistic ways, say that Japan's highly structured labs discourage initiative.

Nor are the Japanese completely abandoning their old copycat tactics. One noteworthy case occurred with fiber optics, a rapidly expanding field in which glass fibers are used to transmit information in the form of laser light pulses. The Japanese breakthroughs came only after Corning Glass, a leader in fiber optics, made the mistake of applying for a Japanese patent. Since the patent process is open to public inspection, Japanese firms studied the U.S. company's approach as well as the subsequent work of Bell Labs, and then made their own innovative improvements. Japanese fiber optics are today as good as any in the world.

In May the Diet voted to create 19 more research and industrial centers around the country. Construction of these "technopolises" could stretch into the 21st century. But by then, Japan may have closed much of the gap with the West in scientific creativity. --By Frederic Golden. Reported by Thomas Levenson/Tokyo

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