West Is Urged To Seek, Use Japanese Data

COVENTRY, ENGLAND—Western scientists need to do more to obtain and make use of Japanese technical research results if their countries hope to remain competitive in many emerging areas. American and European scientists, administrators and industry representatives heard that message repeatedly from speakers at the International Conference on Japanese Information, held here last. month at the University of Warwick. They were also told that scientists should not expect any extraordinary effort by the Japanese. “We can bang the table demanding things from Japan,” said Richard Samuels of MIT. “But this has to be seen as an American, not a Japanese, problem.” In many fields, Japanese scientists lack incentives to make their material more widely known. “Who are the peers for whom Japanese researchers are writing?” asked I. BOtskor of the Japan-Info project, a European Economic Community program to create a Western data base of unpublished Japanese literature. The NSF’s Charles T. Owens noted that often “the Japanese must impress only their superiors in their field to make their reputation and their careers.” As a consequence, Owens said, “there may be a significant body of Japanese basic research of which we are unaware because they don’t feel an urgency to publish, and because we don’t ask.” The Japanese have already done a great deal to make material more available to foreigners, according to several speakers. One reported study found that 86 percent of journals published by Japanese scientific societies contain some material in a Western language, at a minimum an abstract or title. In the past year or so several important academic societies have converted to English to ensure wider dissemination in the West. “The English in Japanese journals is better than in many American journals," said John Scott of the American Institute of Physics But a study by Scott found that even excellent English-language Japanese journals are seldom used in the West. There is no discernable pattern of selection by Japanese scientists in the materials they do choose to translate, warned Theodore Welch of Northern illinois University. “We cannot assume that either the ‘best’ or the ‘worst’ of Japanese research will find its way into English by way of Japanese initiative.” Given these limitations, delegates agreed that governments and businesses need to work together to ensure that the gathering of information from Japan becomes an integral part of industrial R&D policies. To date such efforts have fallen far short of that goal. In the United States, a 1986 law allows for a coordinated effort by government and the private sector. The Office of Japanese Technical Literature created by the act has launched studies covering advanced ceramics and flexible manufacturing systems, said Sabina Javita, its director. The Japanese Technology Evaluation Program, funded in part by NSF, provides material for technology forecasts and trade assessments for US. industry. It surveys such highly competitive fields as high-strength polymers, membrane separation technology and engineering plastics, said Wendy Frieman of Science Applications International Corp. of McLean, Va., which has operated the program since 1983. A November oonference sponsored by NSF will encourage American scientists and engineers to learn Japanese, said NSF’s Charles Wallace. In addition, NSF has broadened scientific exchanges with Japanese laboratories and is helping to develop an electronic bulletin board to disseminate findings from such visits. Despite the value of these efforts, many scientists question the Reagan administration’s commitment. “Technology does not have a home in the U.S. government,” said John, Alic of the congressional Office of Technology Assessment. The picture is further clouded by the administration’s plan to sell the National Technical Information Service, and by the Commerce Department’s mandate that NTIS be self-supporting at a time when industry has not shown itself willing to pay for foreign information. Despite the best intentions of the cooperative Japan-Info project, most European governments prefer to monitor Japanese material on their own. The Dutch science attaché in Japan, for example, produces a monthly bulletin for 6,000 subscribers only—in the Netherlands. The detailed reports gathered by science and technology counselors at British embassies around the World—one-quarter of which relate to Japan—are available only to British organizations. Despite the obstacles, participants agreed on the importance of continued efforts. “We’ve put the key in the ignition,” said MIT’s Samuels. “Now we have to teach people how to drive.” Kimberley is on the staff of the ISI European branch in London.

West Is Urged To Seek, Use Japanese Data

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