Research On The Japan's Industrial Upgrading Driven By The Post-war Scientific And Technological Revolution

After the 2008 economic crisis,to get rid of the economic downturn,the United States,Japan,and Germany have put forward some strategic plans,they are,the "Reinvigorating Manufacturing"(2009),Japan's "Fourth Industrial Revolution"(2010),"Industrial 4.0"(2012).Similarly,in 2015,China put forward "Made in China 2025".These strategic plans have opened a new round of Technological Revolution marked by Big Data,Cloud Computing,Internet of Things(Io T),Artificial Intelligence(AI),etc.As the second largest economy,promoting the domestic industrial upgrading with the help of this rare opportunity has become an urgent issue.Looking back on the "road" that Japan has traveled,we can find that it also had faced the similar problems when it was the second largest economy in the world.And China's current stage is closer to that of Japan in 1970 s from the perspective of comparing the economic development course of China and Japan and the "three-phase superposition" state.However,Japan succeeded in promoting the transformation and upgrading of domestic industries with the help of the technological revolution centered on microelectronics technology.Based on what mentioned above,this paper takes Japan as the research object and focuses the research on the period from post-war era to the 1980 s,and then studies its experience and lessons,so as to provide valuable guidance and reference for China's "road" to take.Based on the deliberation of Schumpeter's theory of innovation,and Techno-economic Paradigm Theory,Industrial Technology Paradigm Theory,National Innovation System Theory and Sectoral Innovation System Theory proposed by the Neo-Schumpeter School,this paper constructs a theoretical analysis framework of industrial upgrading promoted by Scientific and Technological Revolution: from the perspective of the overall industrial system,it belongs to the process of Techno-economic Paradigm transformation,which is realized in the National Innovation System,and the compatibility between them determines the performance of industrial upgrading;from the deep perspective of the specific industries,they are achieved by catalyzing emerging industries and transforming traditional industries.The best dimension for this analysis is Sectoral Innovation System that can reflect the "inter-industry differences",similarly,the matching between them also determines the effectiveness of each industry upgrade.Looking back at the process of Japan's industrial upgrading driven by the Technological Revolution,it shows three stages: the "heavy type" in the 1950 s and 1960 s,the "thin and short type" in the 1970 s and 1980 s,and the "information" after the 1990 s.Among them,the "light,thin,short and small" stage is the most successful period of Japan's development,and it is also the research category of this article.Analyzing the background of its occurrence,it can be seen that,although the heavy-type industrial constructed by emulating the European and American countries has supported the rapid development of Japanese economy,after it became the second largest economy,the inherent limitations and problems of this industrial structure had become increasingly noticeable,and forced Japan's monopoly capital to carry out industrial adjustments;at the same time,the outbreak of the world Scientific and Technological Revolution provided it with a rare historical opportunity.But this opportunity is an "equal opportunity" for the backward nations in a certain sense.The key to seize it lies in the country's own domestic economic and technological development level.However,Japan's rapid growth in the past 20 years has laid a solid economic foundation for itself.The "introduction,digestion,absorption and re-innovation" technology development strategy has accumulated a solid technical foundation for itself in a relatively short period of time.In this context,with the help of the theoretical analysis framework constructed above,the following article explains how the Post-war Technological Revolution centered on microelectronics technology promoted Japan's industrial upgrading and why Japan was more successful from the perspective of the innovation system.From the perspective of the overall industrial system,the occurrence of the Technological Revolution inevitably lead to a Techno-economic Paradigm shift and promote industrial upgrading.And this process is realized in the National Innovation System constructed by government,enterprises,universities,research institutions,and the alliance of innovation entities,etc.United States is still the birthplace of the Post-war Scientific and Technological Revolution.Japan's participation was based on the "second window of opportunity",which was created during the paradigm shift.In other words,Japan's success benefited from the application and development of new technologies originating from the United States,so its Techno-economic Paradigm presents the characteristics of "application development".However,analyzing the innovative behavior of Japanese innovation entities in promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements,we can find that,the government transmits the latest scientific and technological information and assists enterprises to introduce technology;timely adjusts the scientific and technological development strategy and industrial structure development direction;formulates economic policies and patent protection systems to encourage enterprise research and development;takes measures to accelerate the process of industrialization of new technologies;reforms the education system and strengthens the talent introduction system,etc.Enterprises focus on improving independent innovation capabilities;follow the principle of "on-site priority";implement the "consistent system of product development and sales";concentrate funds on development and research and the middle and downstream links of the innovation chain;train in-service personnel,etc.Universities and Research institutions conduct research on industrial technology;pay attention to general education and "strengthen the foot of the mountain" education;cultivate high-tech talents in science and engineering,etc.The "government-led,enterprise-based" innovation alliances jointly research cutting-edge technologies;establish intermediary institutions that can promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements;jointly cultivate and introduce outstanding talents,etc.All of them can maximize the potential of microelectronics technology.And the match between this "catch-up" National Innovation System and the "applied development" Techno-economic Paradigm is exactly the reason that Japan was able to leverage the Post-war Technological Revolution to promote industrial upgrading more successfully.From the further perspective of the specific industries,the Techno-economic Paradigm shift caused by the Technological Revolution is manifested in the process of emerging technologies being transformed into emerging industrial technology paradigms and emerging technologies transforming traditional industrial technology paradigms.This is also a manifestation of the "dual nature" of technological revolution.And the analysis at this level needs to use the Sectoral Innovation System that can reflect "inter-industry differences".After selecting the semiconductor industry and the computer industry as the representatives of emerging industries,and selecting the industrial machine industry(mainly CNC machine tools and industrial robots)and the automobile industry as the typical representatives of traditional machinery industry transformed by the microelectronic technology,the research in this article found that the Industrial Technology Paradigms of these industries are different due to the differences in the Technology Systems,industrial chain positions,and technology life cycle stages.Japan achieves independent innovation and great success in these industries because its various innovation entities have made corresponding adjustments to different Industrial Technology Paradigms and have formed corresponding Sectoral Innovation Systems.A further comparison of the innovation systems of various departments shows that the Japanese government and enterprises and other innovation entities have formed a set of customary practices for promoting emerging industries and transforming traditional industries,but there are significant differences between the two types of industrial upgrading,that is,the Japanese government has shown strong intervention throughout the technology research and development and the transformation of results in promoting emerging industries,especially in the computer industry;while there is relatively little intervention throughout the transformation of traditional industries,mainly guides the "profit-seeking" enterprises that have integrated innovation capabilities to play the main role.As a kind of "institutional construction",the innovation system has the characteristics of "criticality" and the evaluation standard of its advantages and disadvantages is its compatibility with the Techno-economic Paradigm.Japan's experience in successfully leveraging the Scientific and Technological Revolution centered on microelectronics to promote domestic industrial upgrading is that it not only built a National Innovation System that matched the Techno-economic Paradigm at the time,but also paid attention to the hierarchy and differentiation of the innovation system,and acceleratively promoted the formation of emerging industrial technology paradigms and promoted the coordinated development of new and old industries.However,the "catch-up" innovation system dedicated to "application development" also has problems that cannot be ignored,such as insufficient basic research capabilities,not conducive to the generation of disruptive technological innovations,and the existence of directional errors in the government-led large-scale R&D project model,etc.That is also the reason why Japan's innovation and success were unsustainable,so that it reopened the gap with the United States after the 1990 s.At present,the vigorous rise of a new round of Scientific and Technological Revolution provides a "window of opportunity" for China's industrial upgrading to catch up with advanced countries.Meanwhile,it not only provides emerging industries with a parallel development opportunity to "catch up","run side by side",and "take the lead",but also brings traditional industries a rare opportunity to have a high-quality development.Compared with Japan in the 1970 s,the situation that my country is facing at this stage is more complicated.Therefore,it is necessary to build a National Innovation Ecosystem that attaches great importance to basic research and is flexible,pay attention to the "inter-industry differences" of Sectoral Innovation Systems,form Sectoral Innovation System matching the Industrial Technology Paradigm of emerging industries,and build a Sectoral Innovation System that can promote the evolution and upgrading of the traditional Industrial Technology Paradigm.