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This paper studies the diffusion of battery electric vehicle (BEV) technology in Japan. The diffusion process in this study refers to both the innovation and adoption of BEV technology. While previous studies on BEV technological diffusion focus on policy selection, especially domestic policy, little is known about the connectedness between international and domestic factors in the BEV technological diffusion process. This paper aims to enrich the discussion of technology diffusion by expanding the argument that technology diffusion is not only a domestic problem but also an international relations problem using a case study of BEV technology diffusion in Japan. The findings indicate that two international factors push Japan to diffuse BEV technology: Japanese commitment to the global environmental regime and global competition in BEV manufacturing. However, the domestic institution factor hinders the BEV technology diffusion. The production structures of automobile industries and political economy relations between the automobile industry and the government further complicate the diffusion process of BEV technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen energy technologies are envisioned to play a critical supporting role in global decarbonisation. While low-carbon hydrogen is primarily targeted for reducing industrial emissions, alongside decarbonising parts of the transport sector, environmental benefits could also be achieved in the residential context. Presently, gas-dependent countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom are assessing the feasibility of deploying hydrogen home appliances, as part of their national energy strategies. However, prospects for the transition will hinge on consumer acceptance, alongside an array of other socio-technical factors. To support potential ambitions for large-scale and sustained technology diffusion, this study advances a Unified Theory of Domestic Hydrogen Acceptance. Through an integrative, comparative literature review targeting hydrogen and domestic energy studies, the paper proposes a novel Domestic Hydrogen Acceptance Model (DHAM), which accounts for the cognitive and emotional dimensions of human perceptions. Through this dual interplay, the proposed framework can increase the predictive power of hydrogen acceptance models. [Display omitted] • A unified theory of domestic hydrogen acceptance is proposed. • Researchers should integrate multiple acceptance constructs into survey studies. • Comprehensive perceived risks, costs, and benefits predict attitudes toward hydrogen. • Cognitive and emotional processes influence perceptions of hydrogen homes. • Community-level factors should be incorporated into hydrogen acceptance research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The iron and steel industry is a large emitter of CO2 globally. This is especially true for the iron and steel industries in China, Japan, and Korea due to their production volumes and the prevalence of carbon-based steel production. With few low-carbon and commercially available alternatives, the iron and steel industry is truly a hard-to-abate sector. Each of the countries of interest have committed to a net-zero future involving the mitigation of emissions from steel production. However, few studies have investigated the means by which to achieve decarbonization beyond the inclusion of price signalling policies (e.g., carbon tax or emission trading schemes). Here, we use E3ME-FTT:Steel to simulate technology diffusion in the ISI under several policy environments and we investigate the likely impacts on the wider economy. The results show that penalizing carbon intensive processes can incentivize a transition towards scrap recycling, but it is relatively unsuccessful in aiding the uptake of low carbon primary steelmaking. A combination of support and penalizing policies can achieve deep decarbonisation (>80% emission reduction compared with the baseline). Mitigating the emissions in the iron and steel industry can lead to economic benefits in terms of GDP (China: +0.8%; Japan: +1.3%; Korea: +0.1%), and employment (Japan: +0.7%; Korea: +0.3%) with China, where job losses in the coal sector would negate job gains elsewhere, as the exception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan is the third largest economy on the planet but lacks coercive capacity due to Article 9 of its Constitution, which prevents it from having an army and declaring war. This means that it can only rely on persuasion to influence the international sphere and achieve its political objectives. One of the tools it has for this purpose is public diplomacy, which is diplomacy exercised through nontraditional means such as communication, art and culture. One branch of public diplomacy is science and technology diplomacy (S&T Diplomacy), which consists of collaboration in these areas with other nations to strengthen their international projection, as well as the dissemination of scientific knowledge and technology transfer between nations. S&T diplomacy has become a major focus for Japan of its diplomatic action since it launched the Society 5.0 project in 2016, which sought to revolutionize Japan's economy, society and governance through technology. This S&T diplomacy has the potential to not only strengthen Japan's external action, but also to transform its industries and research while it is transforming the infrastructures of Japan's partner nations, like the construction of subway and high-speed rail networks in India. This article will first analyze the theoretical framework of public diplomacy and science and technology diplomacy. Next, Japan's public diplomacy will be studied by comparing The Soft Power 30 and Global Soft Power Index. Finally, Japanese science and technology diplomacy will be analyzed by assessing the initiatives contained in the Japanese Society 5.0 project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores coal and wood manufacturing in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan as the empirical sites for understanding the material gaps between industrial inputs available locally and the affordances of imported technology. It demonstrates how the process of making coking coals for steel smelting and wooden boards for furniture-making challenge a conceptual framework that assumes that raw materials exist on one side of a binary and manufactured goods on the other. Instead, this article foregrounds the creative ways in which actors approached, redesigned and manufactured raw materials locally, to make them comply with the constraints of imported technologies. In doing so, the article provides a useful counterbalance to scholarly explorations that anchor modern Japan in notions of technology transfer and appropriation, thus failing to recognize the creative labour necessary to making imported technologies work on local ground. By focussing on the labour of matching materials to hardware, this article restores to the historical record the creativity and innovation that formed the fabric of the first wave of Japan's industrialisation and nuances our understanding of raw materials in the history of technology in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's Meiji oligarchs put a premium on technologies that projected "civilization" and "modernity" and operated under the assumption that industrial technologies could be operationalized reasonably promptly. Their faith flew in the face of production experience. The case of metallurgical coke manufacturing offers an example of what happened when imported technological systems dead-ended on the fctory floor. Examining the production records of a Meiji-era chemical start-up, this article brings to focus the scope and scale of the creative labor needed to make imported technologies work on the ground. In so doing, it showcases innovative forces that formed the fabric of Japan's early industrialization as a corrective to the much-criticized but resilient notion that the country's industrial takeoff was enabled largely by technology transfer and local appropriation. By highlighting the creativity involved in designing coal inputs, this article opens new perspectives on the history of coals in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1950s, historians have sought to explain industrial modernization in Meiji Japan as a model for developing countries. They typically attribute Japan's success to single factors such as accumulated knowledge or capital, visionary leadership, or technological choice. This article moves beyond mono-causality to examine technology transfer's role in industrial modernization. Tomioka Silk Filature and Osaka Cotton Spinning Mill make the case that components of industrialization were interrelated and a new socio-technological system was essential for technology transfer to affect a Kuhnian-style paradigm shift. Tomioka is an example of ad hoc industrialization, the gradual integration of transferred technologies, and creation of associated regimes leading to a new socio-technological system. In contrast, Osaka Cotton Mill embodies the creation of a new industrial paradigm for Japanese industry, demonstrating the essentiality of integrating numerous socio-technological elements such as adapted artifacts, bio-materials, accumulated knowledge, factory management, and geographic location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the making of university and industry research collaboration from the perspective of matching theory. Our analysis, based on an original survey in Japan, aims at identifying the mechanism of matching. The major findings are as follows. There is significant evidence for positive assortative matching at the project level: a researcher with better seeds or better needs gives a higher value to the partner's research capability and the goodness-of-fit between the project and the partner's capability in selecting its partner. The projects with the partners selected for research capability and goodness-of-fit are associated with high university and industry research collaboration performance. Furthermore, own contact is most used for positive assortative matching. These results indicate the importance of deep field knowledge and tacit knowledge of the researcher in the search process. These findings suggest that technology transfer policy would need to pay significant attention to the contribution of the decentralized matching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European painting technology reached Japan in 1583 with the arrival of Giovanni Cola, the Italian Jesuit painter who was assigned the task of establishing a painting Seminario to supply missionaries with the sacred images needed for their activities. Historical records failed to report information relating to specific European pigments, and only generic mentions of oils are associated with the Seminario. Yet, on a random basis, European pigments and binding media have been identified on some of the paintings that survived the 250‐year ban on Christianity in Japan. In order to fully understand the crucial role of the Seminario in terms of technological and material transfer to Japanese and Chinese artists, for the first time, four extremely important paintings (Important Cultural Property of Italy) have been analyzed. Owing to their extraordinary significance, it was mandatory to carry out a non‐destructive analysis on site. Therefore, energy‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence was used to detect the presence of inorganic chromophores that would not exist in Japan at the time. The paintings depict the martyrdom of Japanese Christians at Nagasaki (1619 and 1622), the martyrdom of Jesuit Missionaries in Japan (1630s), and the portrait of Father Ricci SJ (1610). The results provide definitive evidence of the transfer of technology and use of European pigments at the Jesuit Seminario in Japan and also enable, for the first time, the identification of the transfer of technologies and materials to China as a result of the movement of Jesuit missionaries escaping the fierce persecutions enforced by Japanese authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, many seriously ill children requiring medical equipment are being recommended to transition from hospital to home care in Japan. Since 2011, our recovery center has provided a support program for the transfer process from hospital to home for ill children and their families. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factors related to high care burden after completing the discharge-support program. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted on all primary caregivers whose children received the program in our center and moved from hospital to home (30 children and 29 families) from May 2011 to May 2018. Fifteen children came from the neonatal intensive care unit. The questionnaire consisted of three parts: characteristics of children and families and life after the program; the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI); and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Twenty-three primary caregivers responded (79% response rate). All children received tracheostomy and 71% received home mechanical ventilation. Primary caregivers were all mothers. High ZBI score was not related to the severity and type of medical equipment. There were relationships between high ZBI score and following factors: 'unimproved relationship between patients and family members without primary caregivers' and 'additional medical equipment after discharge'. The result of PANAS showed that positive attitude was not different between those with high and low ZBI scores. It is crucial to reach out to family members without a primary caregiver. Additional medical care/equipment after the program is related to the care burden of primary caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impacts of the Target-Setting Emissions Trading (TSET) Program launched by Saitama Prefecture in Japan in 2011 on the adoption of low-carbon technology. Using facility-level data on the manufacturing sector, the causal relationship between implementation of the program and investment in high-efficiency equipment is estimated. The results show that the TSET Program promoted the adoption of high-efficiency machines and devices for the first three years of the second compliance period, whereas the program did not spur investments in high-efficiency equipment during the first compliance period. These results suggest that the manufacturing facilities may have adopted relatively cheaper emissions reduction plans in the first compliance period such as improvements to equipment they already owned, whereas in the second compliance period, when the emissions targets became stricter, they allocated money and resources to introduce high-efficiency equipment. These findings indicate that the TSET Program succeeded in encouraging emissions reduction efforts by facilities in the manufacturing sector covered by the scheme, even though the program lacks penalties for noncompliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A stochastic technology interaction framework is developed in this work. • Differentiated scale-dependence effects are identified for wind and solar markets. • Technology interactions are dominated by mutualism and prey-predator types. • Stochastic technology diffusion orbits closely relates to deterministic equilibrium. • Mean tech-orbits of random orbits converges to the analytic equilibrium orbits. By using stochastic Lotka-Volterra model, we make a cross-country analysis to potential interactions between penetrations of wind and photovoltaic (PV) technology within uncertain technology ecological systems, and explore the possible distributions of stochastic technology proliferation orbits. We find both positive and negative scale effects for wind markets, while PV solar markets are consistently scale-restrictive for all the target countries; the current technology interactions are dominated by mutualism and prey-predator types, of which prey-predator relationships mainly exist in the US, China and Italy, with PV solar to be predators. Most importantly, we find significant relationships between stochastic technology diffusion orbits and deterministic technology equilibrium orbit; specifically, random orbits of cumulative installed capacity for both wind and PV solar oscillate around the equilibrium orbit under the deterministic Lotka-Volterra model, normally distributed, and the mean orbit of such large-scale random orbits converges to the analytic equilibrium orbit. This finding makes great sense to identify countries with stable technology diffusion distributions, and contributes to exploit predictive features of stochastic Lotka-Volterra model. On this basis, we recognize 3 countries with normally distributed random orbits of technology penetration, i.e., India, Japan and Italy, and three-year forecasts to 2020 are provided for both wind and PV solar technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to advance a model able to explain the synchronization tendency in energy consumption, under the impact of international technology transfers. The key argument is related to the differences in energy consumption efficiency of local and foreign technologies. One direct testable consequence of the model is that there might be a certain correlation between the energy consumption between countries and/or economic areas where a free movement of capital goods and technologies takes place. Hence, it is further tested, in the framework of a multivariate spectrum analysis, the case of energy consumption synchronization between Europe and, respectively, United States and Japan for a time span between 1981 and 2011 based on the data provided by U.S. Energy Information Administration. There are evidences of a leading behavior of energy consumption in United States and Japan in respect to Europe as well as of short-run phase delays of 2 up to 5 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steam locomotives, a transformative transportation technology, experienced quick and wide adoption among major Western powers in the nineteenth century. However, when this technology reached East Asia later in the century, Japan enthusiastically adopted it while China did not. Why was this the case? This article investigates the difference in railroad technology adoption between late Qing China and Meiji-era Japan. Through analysis of historical accounts as well as original source documents, we argue that variations in concern for internal and external security were important determinants of the distinct adoption decisions. The Qing Court's apprehension that technological change would lead to domestic social unrest and make China vulnerable to external threats deterred it from adopting railroads. In Japan, the Meiji leadership faced a less-pronounced internal and external threat environment. This allowed them to focus on the railroads' potential to drive economic growth, consolidate administrative rule, and mobilize military resources. Our results suggest that perceptions regarding a technology's expected effects may contribute more to technology adoption decisions than is suggested by the prevailing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enthusiasm for translation during the early Meiji period is well documented. However, beyond Fukuzawa Yukichi, the publishing sensation of the era, little is known about those who translated works on technology or their motives for doing so. During the 1870s, the heyday of Japan's Meiji enlightenment, over fifty works on technology were translated from Western languages. Although the government often spearheaded this drive, many translators took advantage of inexpensive printing technologies and an accessible book market to publish their own works on Western technologies. This article examines who translated such works and their motives for doing so. It sheds light on how translators exploited traditional means of asserting their authority to ensure the spread of new, "modern" knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We revisit the story of technology adoption and diffusion in Japan's Meiji-era cotton spinning industry, the study of which was pioneered by Gary Saxonhouse (1974). Using a novel data set and modern methodology, we argue that both the ease with which the best technology diffused and the role of “slavish imitation” in this process may have been overstated. We find an important role played by market competition, including asset reallocation. Our analyses provide richer insights into the complex phenomena of technology diffusion, innovation, and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Government organizations have to justify high expenditure during periods of financial crisis such as the one we are experiencing today. Space agencies have attempted to increase the returns on their investments in space missions by encouraging the commercial use of advanced technologies. This paper describes two technology transfer (TT) cases promoted by JAXA, in order to identify the organizational models and determinants of TT. The development of a TT process from space to Earth not only benefits the aerospace industry but also the network of national companies. The aim of the paper is to investigate who the actors are and the nature of their role, as well as the determinants of the TT process in the Japanese space sector. The case studies confirm the typical path of transfer as ‘Earth–space–Earth’. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Japanese type of set-net, Otoshi-ami, was introduced to Thailand in 2003 with the aim of assessing its feasibility as a sustainable coastal fisheries management tool for the empowerment of coastal fishers' communities. All preparations for constructing and installing the set-net in the coastal waters off Mae Rumpheung beach, Rayong Province, Thailand, were carried out by local fishers, with technical advice and support from national and international institutions. The gear was modified and developed to suit the conditions of the fishing ground and target species. Data on the catch and sales trends in Rayong using the set-net were collected for 7 years for statistical analysis; during this period, the gear design and marketing strategies were improved. Simulation analysis for evaluating the cost-profit bases was conducted to establish a model for set-net technology transfer in Southeast Asia, based on differing numbers of fishers and operation days. The simulation results show the required size of the average daily catch to cover the total cost according to the average unit price, where the economic return point is an average catch of 128 kg, based on a unit price of 25 Baht/kg (0.83 USD/kg), with ten fishermen and a daily operation cost of 3,200 Baht (USD 106.17). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explanations of Japanese technological modernization from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century have increasingly focused on domestic capabilities as opposed to the traditional emphasis on knowledge transfers from the West. Yet, the literature is mostly qualitative and it lacks a comparative context. This article presents quantitative metrics derived from patent data covering Japan, the United States, Britain and Germany and it also exploits non-patent based sources. The evidence shows that Japanese domestic inventive activity exhibited a pattern of rapid modernization to the technology frontier in terms of its level, sectoral distribution and quality. Domestic capabilities were much stronger than is often supposed in accounts that stress the prevalence of Western technology diffusion. A long run expansion in indigenous development set a favorable foundation for the economic growth miracle Japan experienced after the Second World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although university-industry (U-I) collaborations promise numerous benefits, both parties need to overcome high cultural and organisational barriers in order to materialise potentials. A variety of boundary spanning structures have developed in the USA and other countries, and this paper examines the roles and effects of industry liaison offices (ILOs) in Japan based on the case study of the Division of University Corporate Relations (DUCR) at the University of Tokyo. In Japan, because of governmental regulations, traditional U-I cooperative research has been formed within faculty members' interpersonal networks with corporate researchers. Thus, the cooperative research projects were small in size and limited to bring actual commercial benefits. This paper suggests that formal boundary spanning by ILOs could facilitate the formation of 'inter-organisational' alliances between university and industry, and the alliances could generate larger, interdisciplinary, explorative cooperative research, overcoming the limitations of traditional cooperative research projects initiated in informal and interpersonal approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Japan's evolving commitments to technology development and technology diffusion in Asia. It explores Japan's technology strategies in three areas--Internet protocol, open source software, and horology--focusing on the importance of technology standards. The development and diffusion of technology standards has become one of the core elements in establishing industrial competitiveness. The importance of technology standards encouraged the Japanese government and firms to pursue a regional policy to develop and diffuse new technological ideas and standards in Asia. Japan's commitments were accepted by its neighbors because they could obtain various benefits from collaboration with Japan, such as technological exchanges, technology transfer, and financial aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initiated by a speech by the Japanese Prime Minister in 2002, an improved strategy for the creation, protection and use of intellectual property in the Japanese economy has rapidly evolved. The author outlines the major elements and achievements of the new strategy under five categories: (1) Creativity and inventiveness (e.g. facilitating technology transfer from universities to the private sector). (2)Protection (e.g. trilateral sharing of search and examination results, speedier examination, and the establishment of an IP high court). (3) Exploitation (e.g. widening the range of organisations allowed to assist SMEs). (4) Contents (mainly aspects of IP in the movie industry). (5) Cultivating human resources (e.g. increased emphasis on IP education in universities). Future work, in phase 2 through to 2009, in making Japan an ‘IP Rich Country’, will concentrate on building on these changes to integrate IP more fully into business growth. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Using patent data from the United States, Japan, and Germany, this paper examines both innovation and diffusion of air pollution control equipment. Whereas the United States was an early adopter of stringent sulfur dioxide (SO2) standards, both Japan and Germany introduced stringent nitrogen dioxide (NO X ) standards much earlier than the US. Nonetheless, in both cases, tightened standards in the US led to more domestic patenting, but not more foreign patenting. Overall, the data suggest that inventors respond to environmental regulatory pressure in their own country, but not to foreign environmental regulations. Moreover, any technology transfer that occurs appears to be indirect. Domestic innovation occurs even for technologies that have already experienced significant innovative activity abroad and utilities purchase pollution abatement equipment from domestic firms. However, patent citation data from the US do show that earlier foreign patents are an important building block for NO X pollution control innovations in the US. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Analyzes the legal and institutional framework of the Japanese technology-transfer system. Mechanisms of cooperation and technology transfer in the U.S. and Japan; Information on U.S. government research institutes; Background on Japanese universities; Emergence of university-affiliated technology-transfer organizations.

At the beginning of April, Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Corp (MCC) transferred membrane-related technology development and sales activities – undertaken by its subsidiary Mitsubishi Chemical Aqua Solutions Co Ltd (MCAS) – to its own operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the limitations facing state-led environmental technology transfer by the allocation of property rights between states and firms as illustrated by Japan's Green Aid Plan. Purpose of the plan from the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry; Projects under the program; Factors that led to the launch of the Green Aid Plan; Impact of acid rain in Japan.

Analyzes the roles of Japan's official development assistance (ODA) in the technological transfer of Southern Africa and East Asia. Development of the Japanese ODA and its basic philosophy; Major characteristics of ODA; Comparison of the Japanese ODA to that of Southeast Asia and Southern Africa; Help extended by ODA to the two regions.

Explores the information and technological transfer experience of Japan. Relation between increases in the total factor productivity and substantial technological improvement; Growth of per capital gross domestic product.

Discusses the transfer of marine steam turbine engine technology at Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard during the industrialization in Japan. Role of the shipyard on the technology transfer; Information on the industrialization; Science and technical practice of the shipyard;

Illustrates how Japanese electrical and electronics firms are transferring their technological capabilities, particularly in the area of product development and design, to the Pacific Rim nations. Declining importance of enclosing a multinational firm's technological capabilities in the home country in the light of industrial uncertainty; Need for the multinational firms to incorporate dynamics in product development in the host countries.

Shows how Japan's official development assistance (ODA), also known as foreign aid, together with direct overseas investments of multinational firms, has been instrumental in energizing the economies and altering international trade patterns of East Asia. Benefits of the coordination of government aid with private-sector investments.

Makes observations concerning Japan's experience in technology transfer. Applying Japan's experience to Saudi Arabia; Requirements, obstacles and channels in technology transfer; Research and development programs; Role of the government; Educational systems; Transfer of technology from Japan.

In this article the author discusses innovation in Japan. She notes that Japanese academic reforms in the 2000s have encouraged entrepreneurship and technology transfer from universities to industry and that these reforms are beginning to yield results, which leaders in both science and business hope will lead Japan into the next phase of innovation development. Topics include efforts towards increased flexibility and transparency, a more global focus, and more national and international collaboration, the restart of projects delayed by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and Japan's long-term goals of developing sustainable energy sources and solving the health challenges of an aging population.

Highlights technological transfer and research-and-development infrastructure as foundations enough to sustain Japan's future economic development. Need for research integration and developing transfer technology; Accomplishment of new technology applications through research and development.

Examines the plans of a group of experts in patents and technology transfer to overhaul Japan's intellectual property system. Members of National Forum for Intellectual Property Strategy; Need for patent office with greater technical capacity; Proposals that address intellectual property issues in universities, industry and government.