The Japan Research Industry Association (Kenkyu Sangyo Kyokai) has recently been established. "Research Industry" refers to the industry undertaking or supporting R&D. This Association aims at promoting R&D by seeking to solve problems allied with the R&D enterprise such as the enhancement of basic research and the furtherance of cooperation among industry, government, and universities. The current R&D environment is undergoing severe strains mainly as a result of the increasing outlays required to keep up with increasingly sophisticated and complex technologies. This fact is prompting the Association to create co-operative structures within the research industry.

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This article presents Toshiba Corporation's policy, organization and management on basic research as well as the management of its Research and Development Centre (RDC), in particular that of the Advanced Research Laboratory (ARL) set up within the latter in 1988. Toshiba's R&D organization consists of three types of entities: development sections and development laboratories in the business groups and corporate laboratories. The RDC's R&D cover all of Toshiba's business domains, these being in the areas of energy and electronics. The process of setting R&D themes takes one of two paths: one is the "Long and Mid-range research Programme" where R&D themes and targets are examined systematically; the other is the so-called "R&D Planning by Individual Researchers". Basic research at RDC involves "purposive basic research", that is, constructing images of suture applications, examining the essence of the research by clearly defining the target, and undertaking basic research wherever deemed necessary. The mission of the ARL is to carry out purposive basic research on advanced materials or devices that are likely to form the core of new business fields. The flat-type organization of the ARL allows the director of the labolatory ot manage all the research themes directly. Besides the ability to solve problems, researchers at the ARL are expected to generate research problems on their own and to display a capacity for self-management.

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The major thoughts of this paper are that the impact of technological advancement on economic development is ever increasing, that the closer technology is to science, the more advanced are the technological problems companies have to solve. that fusions of different kinds of technology are necessary for applied research. And that the speed at which R&D is conducted is higher than ever before. Businesses should become more involved with basic research; that is, their R&D should include both the basic and applied levels. This paper outlines the R&D organization at Sumitomo Electric Co. and describes its past and present research efforts on normal temperature superconductivity as an instance of an R&D planning that combines basic and applied research. The paper concluded that the future of research on superconductivity is uncertain; Sumitomo Electric Industries wishes nevertheless to pursue this line of research hoping it will eventually bear fruit. The scope of a single company in this realm of R&D is, however, very limited and it is necessary therefore to enhance the co-operative ventures as well as international interaction among researchers.

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This study is about the current state and prospects of the KRI and similar firms. The KRI is a firm undertaking commissioned research; such firms constitute a unique type in Japan. Given that Japanese firms tend to be secretive about R&D and that the mobility of people with relevant skills is low, being therefore difficult for firms to obtain the best brains around, new trends are appearing pointing to an increasing eagerness to enter new fields of business, to the mounting costs of R&D, and to the ever-increasing uncertainty of results. These trends are breaking the traditional secrecy of R&D among Japanese firms. In this context, firms undertaking commissioned research are bound to play a larger role in the future concerning the national development of technology.

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The development of the information -oriented society, the diversification of customer's needs, the trend regarding the protection of intellectual property, and the growing intensity of global environmental problems, are drastically changing society, the market and technology. To meet the increasing complexity of technologies and the evershortening time span available to carry out R&D and to merchandize new products, it is necessary to design long-term strategies, to set up flexible R&D systems, and to combine R&D with production. SHARP's R&D organization is divided into three groups I a vertical way. One consists of six laboratories under the R&D division responsible for basic and applied research; another consists of seven laboratories under each production division in charge of applied research and development; the third consists of the engineering section of each production division in charge of commercialization. Moreover, horizontal project teams are also formed. SHARP uses the matrix organization system to allocate the developments of fundamental technologies efficiently and carries out a considerable amount of basic research, especially object-oriented basic research. The successful accomplishment of these tasks requires original managerial methods for R&D planning.

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This article presents the process involved from the creation of Ultra fine fiber to the development of its applications and discusses the R&D strategy adopted. The development of technology for ultra fine fiber started when its potential was assessed during research efforts into the common features of the high quality textiles among natural materials. After a technological breakthrough, the application was changed to make suede-like artificial leather. In so doing, the functions and fields of application were broadened. As a result of its research efforts in this area, Toray corporation has met with success in the market and other firms have also undertaken R&D to make ultra fine fiber. Another consequence of these efforts has been the advancement of the related technologies. Future R&D endeavours in this area are likely to be geared towards the needs of the market.

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This article describes several aspects concerning the R&D planning for new businesses and new products by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. The R&D organization of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation consists of two layers, one comprising thirteen R&D laboratories in the Corporate R&D Headquarters, and the other gathering a number of R&D units set up within the factories of the business groups. The R&D expenditures are distributed regardless of the company's sales/profit ratio. Two fifths of the R&D budget is assigned to the corporate laboatories and the rest to the R&D units in the factories. The criteria for allocating the R&D funds are described. Further, the article describes the fields of research the company is engaged in, the management of the R&D projects, and the decision-making process for selecting the R&D themes. Finally, the article discloses the technologies that Mitsubishi Electric Corporation considers will become the sources of major future business and products.

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In 1990, the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan established a Forum for Fundamental Problems of Research Industry. The forum issued a report on the present status of research industry in Japan and problems to be solved for its future development. According to the report, R&D investment by the Japanese private sector has been rapidly increasing, and is now at the level of about 10 trillion yen per year, enough to be regarded as an Industry in itself. It is also said that various research support activities are gaining in importance and sales. Those activities include testing, evaluation, analysis, the provision of research information, and the provision of human resources. On the other hand, the report points out that there exist many problems to be solved for future development of the research industry in Japan. Facilitating basic research, attracting human resources, internationalization, and strengthening research fundamentals are examples.

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This paper consists of four chapters that deal with technological innovations and business cyles, transitions in the technological paradigm, paradigm shifts and co-operation strategies in the chemical engineering industry, and the international competitive power and other characteristics of Japanese companies. Current trends of technological innovation and the present techno-economic paradigm are described, and advice is given on which strategies to adopt depending on the changes in the technological phases. The that technological innovation is the driving force of economic growth, and that technological progress and the process of market formation are subject to lifecycles, condition the strategic reactions of companies. These reactions will further depend on the technological phases the companies are in. Indicators to extend business to new fields are drawn from case studies and problems concerning basic research are discussed.

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Two sets of mathematical model for analysis are introduced to simplify the simulation procedure by employing an appropriate approximation. Several pieces of new information are obtained on the interrelation between the managerial indices and the parameters relating to the managerial policy after simulation analyses. The amount of profit before tax is found to reach the maximum at a certain combination of values for the related parameters, and it is estimated for most of the Japanese industrial corporations that this condition is almost fulfilled through the ceaseless efforts made in managerial optimization. It is theoretically concluded that the ratio of the marginal revenue to the expenditure for research and development would converge to a certain universal value after a spontaneous procedure of optimization in the market mechanism, and the optimum amount for the expenditure for research and development is estimated therefrom to be about 12% of the amount of the marginal revenue.

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A rationalized way of approach is presented to design the long-term planning of an industrial corporation by making use of the mathematical model and the results obtained thereby after simulation analyses. A practical method to correlate quantitatively the macroscopic features of the research and development group to the long-term planning is resented. A series of the evaluation technique is proposed for new business projects at the pre-stage, mid-stage and post stage of the development. The diversification of a corporation in the petrochemical industry towards its downstream is discussed in terms of the results obtained after simulation analyses, and is recognized to be reasonable for the rapid increase in the amount of sales. The effective approach to the management to let them understand the proper role of the research and development activities in the company-wide management system is suggested by making use of the results herein obtained.

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