Top schools eye uneasy alliance with private sector
The agenda of top-flight domestic schools such as the University of Tokyo is changing along with the turbulent economic climate. With Japan facing the prospect of being left behind by countries such as China, which is rapidly rising as a new economic superpower, the domestic ...
Reforms shake higher education's foundations
Scholars at Japan's universities have long been criticized for enjoying "splendid isolation" within their ivory towers. But this may no longer be the case, as the university structure cannot remain immune to the dramatic social and economic upheavals roiling the nation. The global shift toward ...
Successful firms have learned importance of patents
It was a big challenge for Canon Inc., one of Japan's top camera makers, to embark on the copy machine business in the late 1960s, as the market was dominated by the U.S. giant Xerox Corp. But Canon, now a globally known printer maker, successfully ...
Japanese firms urged to better protect patents
Having lost its edge as a mass-production base, Japan's future economic prosperity depends on its innovativeness in offering high value-added products and services. Along with efficient research and development, the strategic use of known technologies holds the key for Japanese firms to surpass their foreign ...
Japan moves to compete on greener side of the street
Gone are the days when Japanese businesses felt a healthy environment was a concept that could only be achieved at the expense of economic growth. In the latest phase of the evolution in the relationship between business and the Earth, more Japanese firms are taking ...
Japan's high-tech history sets scene for the future
Although the high cost of doing business in Japan has eroded the competitiveness of many manufacturers, some high-tech firms have managed to retain their edge. Nikon Corp. engineers inspect a product used to make semiconductors. Tokyo Electron Ltd. is one. With plants in Japan and the ...
Nanotechnology is seen having a massive future
AKO, Hyogo Pref. -- In many ways a typical science lab, it is difficult for an outsider to see what goes on at Himeji Institute of Technology's Laboratory of Advanced Science and Technology for Industry -- at least with the naked eye. Shinji Matsui, professor ...
Businesses bustle to board biotech bandwagon
With the mapping of the human genome opening the door to new possibilities for curing diseases and developing medicine, many Japanese companies are running to catch the bandwagon for the emerging biotech business. Researchers set glass sheets in a machine to produce DNA chips by ...
Can 'e-Japan' make leap from paper to reality?
The economic slump over the past decade has crushed Japan's confidence and raised fundamental questions about the government's ability to turn things around. But the planned creation of an electronic government is stirring hope that an efficient and transparent administrative system may finally emerge to ...
Lifetime employment myth fades amid jobless realities
At the age of 40, Yoshiro Kamimura worked in sales at a chemical company, with a wife and two preschool children to support. Last April, the company told him he was being fired as part of the firm's streamlining program. The following month, he was ...
Business law changes just scratch surface
Satoshi "Sonny" Koike believes Japan's commercial laws are rigid and inhibitive. Instead of accepting the status quo, however, the 41-year-old entrepreneur has used loopholes in vaguely worded legal terms to stake a claim in the fast-changing world of the Internet. Koike took advantage of one ...
LDP still kowtows to vested interests at the economy's expense
Pop into a convenience store and you may still find inconvenience: They don't sell medicine and you may not find cigarettes or alcohol at some shops. The sales of these products are strictly controlled under the government's licensing system, from which local retailers -- one ...
