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"There's a perception that what Japan does is import all its technology and turn around and export the products," says Maria Papadakis of the National Science Foundation's International Studies Group. But a recent NSF report on R&D funding that Papadakis authored supports her opinion to the contrary, namely that, in Japan, "there's a lot more innovation than the country is given credit for." The NSF report focuses on how and where Japan spends its R&D dollars, what funding goes to its own scie

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The NSF report focuses on how and where Japan spends its R&D dollars, what funding goes to its own scientists, and what technology it imports. According to the foundation, Japan spends about the same percentage of total R&D funds on basic research as does the United States: 13% for Japan, 12% for the U.S. (These figures are based on statistics for 1985, the most recent year for which comprehensive data are available.)

In Japan, imported know-how appears to be playing a decreasing role in the whole manufacturing sector: In 1975, for example, an index of the amount of technology imported stood at 11 for manufacturing, while 10 years later it had dropped to 5.

The decline was even more pronounced in specific industries. For the rubber industry, the index of imported technical know-how went from 13 to 4. The petroleum and coal industry dropped from 18 to 8, and in ...

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