WASHINGTON—Some members of Congress are urging the administration to do more to carry out a law passed last year to help U.S. researchers and industry stay abreast of Japanese competition.
At a Senate subcommittee hearing last month, Commerce Department officials were asked about their progress in implementing the Japanese Technical Literature Act. The act calls for the government to monitor technical developments in Japan, consult with the private sector about its needs for such information and coordinate federal efforts to acquire, translate and distribute it.
No more than 300 U.S. scientists and engineers are capable of reading technical literature in Japanese, according to Joseph F. Caponio, director of the National Technical Information Service. At the same time, only 200 of the approximately 10,000 scientific and industrial journals published in Japan are entirely translated into English.
Dispute Over Effort
Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (DW.V.), one of the bill's sponsors, said...
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