The Diet enacted a basic intellectual property law Wednesday that the government hopes will promote the emergence of eminent scientists like Koichi Tanaka, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
The bill, which cleared the House of Councilors in the morning, calls for the protection of intellectual properties and making full use of patents and inventions.
The legislation covers inventions, literary works, trademarks as well as technologies and information deemed beneficial to business operations.
The law calls on the government to speed up the registration of patents and to develop human resources.
It also urges companies to reward researchers who have made outstanding achievements.
The government hopes greater creativity in the private sector will invigorate the economy, and it will draw up a comprehensive plan to promote intellectual property in line with the introduction of the new law, according to officials.
A project team will be created within the Cabinet to map out intellectual property strategies, and the government plans to invite private citizens to take part.