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Subject: More on Japan's Information Infrastructure
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------- Forwarded Message

Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1993 08:37:25 -0500
From: Dave Farber 

I sent this out to my interesting_people mailing list (the same one that the 
original distribution of Izumi's article was sent to) several weeks ago. I 
thought you might find it a good complement to the article.

Dave


The following is by permission of the author and is a Keynote address to 
the First International Symposium on Autonomous Distributed Systems held
in Yokohama Japan last week.

Dave


Japan's Contribution to the World Through Science and Technology

Hiroshi Inose

Director General of the National Center for Science Information Systems,
Chairman of Industrial Technology Council, MITI
and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo


Abstract 

	As a technological superpower committed to peace, Japan should
play more positive role for the good of humanity.  Japan's postwar
experience of successfully converting military industry to civilian
production and thus gaining international competitiveness for example,
will help nations facing large-scale arms reduction.  Japan's success
of developing clean automotive engines that drastically reduced air
pollution and established international competitiveness of Japanese
cars, will encourage nations tackling global environmental issues.  By
solving her own problems including the enhancement of basic research
and higher education, Japan will be able to make genuine contributions
to the world.



1. Introduction

	As never before in the entire course of its history, Japan
today is enjoying unprecedented prosperity.  It is time we begin, I
believe, to give full play to our extensive economic and technological
muscle, in order to contribute to coexistence and prosperity around
the world.  In addition, we must address our own internal problems,
using all our physical and intellectual resources.  We need to make
our best efforts to fashion a still brighter future.



2. Technological Innovation Necessitating Revisions of the World Atlas.

< The End of Ideology >
	It will not be too much of an exaggeration to say that the
current political upheaval in the CIS and East European countries has
been caused by the failure of their leaders to take the tremendous
impact of technological innovation for what it really is.  In the
first place, they failed to recognize that technological innovation is
the primary engine of sustained economic growth, and in the process
allowed devastating economic privations to be visited upon them.  In
the second place, they were at a complete loss to cope with the fact
that controlling information is now virtually impossible, as
technological innovation has by now made information services via
television and other media readily accessible across national
boundaries.  They could no longer hide the dire realities of their
terminal economic malaise from the eyes of the populace.

	The particular brand of ideology that obfuscated the course of
world political and economic affairs for 80 long years has burned
itself out none too quickly, but it is quite symbolic that the
collapse has been triggered by technological innovation, as is
poignantly implied by the disappearance of the hammer and sickle,
which can belatedly be taken to have stood for an industry on the
wane.

	Technological innovation will continue to force political and
economic cartographers to drastically revise the world atlas.  By the
time the drastic process of industrial restructuring currently under
way has run its course--with far-reaching consequences that will pale
even the great Industrial Revolution into insignificance--those
developing countries that learn to take technological innovation for
what it really is will have moved up to the rank of advanced
countries, while those advanced countries that fail to do so will find
their once advanced status no longer eligible for the newly defined
sense of advancement.

< The Triplex of Major Economic Areas >

	The EC market integration scheduled to come into effect by the
end of 1992 will likely proceed to get not only the EFTA but also the
CIS and East European countries involved in its continuous process of
evolution.  It is worth noting in such a process how the wide
technological and economic gaps that divide the countries concerned
are going to be filled and evened out, and how their potential but
varying capabilities for technological innovation are going to be
productively integrated.

	The region surrounding Japan will likely continue to register
remarkable economic growth, driven chiefly by the DAEs (dynamic Asian
economies).  Despite all the uncertainties associated with China, the
East Asian region in the not too distant future will come to have
economic and technological resources matching those of the integrated
Europe.

	The magnitude of problems that the United States has to face
up to as it tries to deal with its enormous overseas debts and fiscal
deficits should not obscure the stark reality of its gigantic economic
and technological power.  The NAFTA involving Canada and Mexico will
definitely help revitalize the regional economy, and, provided that
Central and South American countries are economically and politically
stabilized, the Americas will have a bright future to look forward to.

	Viewed in this perspective, it seems inevitable that the world
will be divided into three major economic regions--namely, Europe, the
Americas, and East Asia.  The question is whether the tripolarized
regional economic blocs will become mutually exclusive and thereby
intensify confrontation and conflict, or maintain mutually open
systems and give full play to the spirit of reciprocity and
compromise.

< Confrontation and Conflict, or Reciprocity and Compromise >

	The steadily proceeding and indisputably growing trend toward
global interdependence should be taken as an eloquent demonstration
that, over the long term, confrontation and conflict will become no
more than a vestige from the past.  Over the short term, however, it
is still within the realm of possibility for a limited international
dispute, typically over trade frictions, to escalate into a direct
confrontation involving entire regional economic blocs.  To the extent
trade imbalances are purportedly caused by technological
differentials, there are dangerous signs these days of a growing trend
to try to hoard and enclose, as an exclusive tool for confrontation
and conflict, the results of technological innovation that should be
treated as a common heritage of mankind.

	The history of European nations that have been in the vanguard
of modern civilization has been, at least in part, one of hostilities
repeating themselves true to the logic of confrontation.  Even as
these nations are trying now, for the first time in their history, to
reconcile and integrate themselves, the logic of confrontation dies
hard, and may assert itself again, not on the international level any
longer, but on the escalated level of interregional economic blocs.

	The particular school of ideology on which the global
structure of confrontation has been predicated for 80 long years is
now at its terminal stage.  Now that the grandiose logic of
confrontation and conflict in the name of the proletarian dictatorship
has become vacuous, what philosophy, if any, is there to fill the
vacuum?  Will it be the cruel logic of confrontation again, deriving
from Cartesian dualism, in a different guise this time, with a touch
of cosmetics?  Or will benign oriental pluralism in the spirit of
reciprocity and concession shake off its veil of modesty and claim
occidental attention and recognition?  Precisely because technological
innovation tends to be regarded these days as a tool for confrontation
and conflict, rather than for coexistence and prosperity, engineers
like the present writer are very much concerned about this as yet
unanswered question.

< Breaking the Spell >

	The unanswered question poses a formidable challenge to the
Japanese and their status as a technological superpower and calls for
radical changes in their traditional modus cogitandi.  Living, as they
did in the past, in a zero-sum society in complete isolation from the
outside world, the people acquired the wisdom of reciprocity and
compromise as a practical way of getting a measure of satisfaction in
achieving one's ends without hurting or penalizing the others.  Even
in the present-day business context of severe and excessive
competition, winning sides would usually not go so far as to drive
their rivals over the brink of bankruptcy, but prefer to leave them
some room for surviving the lost contest.  Note, however, that "the
others" and "their rivals" here were and are limited to Japanese
individuals and Japanese enterprises.

	Centuries ago, whatever lay over the horizon and across the
sea was simply beyond the ken of the people living in a small island
country.  As was so literally expressed in a Shinto purification
prayer, sins and impurities were to be washed away into the waters,
and nobody even dreamt of "the others" who might be on the receiving
end of drifting sins and impurities on the other side of the ocean.
Had such a thought crossed their minds at all, they would not have had
a linguistic term even remotely related to "the others" so alien and
far away.

	If the Japanese repine at their treatment as the odd man out
in the increasingly borderless international community today, it is
due, above all else, to their failure to outgrow this ancient
distinction between "the related others" on the inside who are called
"Japanese" and "the unrelated others" on the outside who are called
"foreigners."  It is only when the Japanese people have broken their
way out of this ghost of a spell and have learned to look at all
peoples of the world indiscriminately as "the related others" that
their spirit of reciprocity and compromise will attain enough
universality to count possibly as a new global code of behavior.  Only
then will their power of technological innovation begin to make
genuinely worthwhile contributions to a brave new world.



3. Technological Innovation on the Brink of Precariousness

< Pandora's Box Opened >

	TV coverage of the Gulf War brought the horrors of high
technology into living rooms night after gruesome night.  The children
were thrilled at the unfolding scenes that were as familiar to them as
commercial shots of the latest cockroach traps and monster-hunting
computer games, and the adults got very nostalgic as they were
reminded of cowboys and Indians battle scenes from vintage Western
movies.  What they were witnessing, however, was not the fiction of
computer games nor even cowboy exploits, but rather the
minute-to-minute realities of a hightech-based massacre.  As the
destruction is slowly brought to light, the innocent viewers may be
shocked out of wonder and into repugnance at high technology per se.

	The Gulf War has also demonstrated the "spin-on" effects of
civilian high tech developments on military application, as well as
the high degree of dependence of the latter on the former.  The sheer
range and variety of high tech products diverted from civilian to
military uses, such as HDTV cameras, super LSI memory chips, infrared
sensors, etc., may invite a plausible case for controlling the
distribution of civilian high tech developments.  This is because the
reduced military threat of the former Soviet Union is being offset by
the increasing threat posed by the Middle East and other developing
countries.

	While the Gulf War has allowed the world a glimpse of the
colossal power of destruction of high technology, it has also exposed
the paradoxical powerlessness of high tech gadgetry when it comes to
restoration and reconstruction in the aftermath of destruction.  Had
nuclear and chemical weapons been unleashed, the devastation would
have been irretrievable.  It is painfully clear that high technology
today simply does not have the power for restoration and
reconstruction that match its power for destruction.

< Superiority of Civilian Technology >

	Seen in this perspective, high technology today can be said to
be on the brink of precariousness.  The remarkable development of high
technology in the post-World War II years has expanded the
intellectual horizons of mankind and sustained the economic growth of
the world. We have come to learn a great deal about the macrocosms of
boundless outer space and the microcosms of microbes.  Rapid progress
in information technology has boosted productivity in the established
industries and given birth to new service industries in computers and
communications.  Progress in agricultural and medical technology has
allowed the world to sustain a population of 5.5 billion.

	These benefits have been produced by high tech developments
created primarily for civilian purposes and rarely are the result of
"spin-offs" from military technology.  The fact is, as stated above,
that military technology can not long be viable without "spin-ons"
from civilian technology.  Such remarkable progress in civilian
technology has been due in no small measure to the fact that Japan and
West Germany, vanquished in World War II and effectively deprived of
military power and munitions industries, have concentrated their
resources for technological innovation in the civilian sector and
enhanced their technological prowess through severe competition in the
marketplace, with the result that civilian technology is now ahead of
military technology.  Should military powers, in their euphoria over
their victory, fail to face up to the realities, they would be bound
to decline and fall in the long run, and all expectations of world
economic growth and all aspirations for improved quality of life would
come to nought.

< Japan's Turn on Stage as a Peaceful Superpower >

	With less than eight years to go before it will have run its
course, the twentieth century has been more war-ridden than any other
in history.  Two world wars and a number of hostilities large and
small have wreaked havoc on peoples in all corners of the world except
North America.  Atomic bombs and other weapons of mass destruction
were wantonly unleashed, killing great numbers of combatants and
greater numbers still of civilians.  The logic of the victorious and
the diabolical abuse of science and technology were allowed to go
unchecked under the pretense of justice and with no pangs of
conscience whatsoever.  It has been largely the age of devils reigning
without restraint.
	No such atrocities and follies should be repeated in the next
century.  No facile use, for whatever reason, of military force as a
means of settling international disputes should ever be condoned, but
consigned instead to a waste bin of vestiges from the nineteenth
century mentality.  Nor should it be permissible to conclude any
international agreement designed to control, on purported grounds of
security, the free distribution of civilian technology, which would
thereby effectively prevent the benefits of civilian technology from
being recycled to the human society at large.  If there is anything
that needs to be strictly controlled, it is the transfer of civilian
high tech developments to military applications, for which there is an
urgent need for international consensus.  At the same time, our
resources should be allocated to improving our capabilities of
restoration and reconstruction, matching those of massive destruction,
and to developing effective systems for preventing such destruction.
Technological development from now on will not be socially acceptable
unless it is squarely geared to a better quality and higher
purposefulness of life.

	In order to ensure that science and technology in the
twenty-first century, certain to be more powerful than what it is
today, will not be abused as in the past, Japan, as a technological
superpower committed to pacifism, egalitarianism, and liberalism, has
a very active role to play.



4. Japan's International Contribution Through Technology

< Melancholy of an Economic Superpower >

 	The amount of international contribution that Japan coughed up
in order to help share the burden of financing the Gulf War (an
impressive $13 billion) does not seem to have won much recognition or
appreciation.  Inasmuch as the huge amount did not represent some easy
money raised in fund-managing games, but was paid out from tax
revenues, the people of an economic superpower find it rather
discouraging and irritating not to have their contribution duly
acknowledged nor to be told how it is being allocated.  Given the
basically unresolved problems in the Middle East situation, and the
elements of uncertainty in the CIS and East European countries, it is
quite probable that new international disputes and economic crises
will occur, with the proposed formulae for their settlement calling
for more bills to be paid by Japan.  Such bills will be passed on to
the Japanese people, causing them to be discouraged and irritated, as
by an unending series of one typhoon after another slamming into their
land.

	A new type of typhoon is in the offing, too.  There are
mounting pressures on Japan to dispatch its SDF troops under the flag
of PKF, PKO, or what have you . Since Japan has constitutionally
renounced the use of force as a means of settling international
disputes, no amount of institutional tinkering or legal quibbling
would allow Japan to make its military contribution over and beyond
its self-imposed constraints and more tangible, say, than that of a
small island nation in the South Pacific.  Whatever move in military
terms Japan can make is likely to fail again to win recognition and
appreciation, in all likelihood it will only add to the sense of
discouragement and irritation on the part of the melancholy nation.
Any such move will run the additional risk of dampening the torch of
pacifism that has been held high for more than forty years since the
end of World War II, and of stirring unwanted suspicions in the
neighboring Asian nations.

< Restructuring Military Industries into Civilian Ones: Japan's Precious 
Experience >

	How then can Japan best contribute to the rest of the world?
One way is to make widely known--and available for use elsewhere in
the world--the lessons of modernization that the Japanese have learned
the hard way in the last hundred years, along with the national virtue
of industriousness that has steadily helped them along in the process.

	Scared of possible colonization by Western imperialist powers,
the Japanese in the wake of the Meiji Restoration toiled and moiled to
consolidate their industrial base and build up their armed forces as
an unavoidable cost of independence.  Having tasted the luxury of
victory in the Russo-Japanese war, however, Japan committed the fatal
error of joining the imperialist camp and inflicted terrible damages
on its neighboring nations as it tumbled down the path of
self-destruction.  The alternating spells of glory and misery over the
years should serve as a powerful lesson to any nation intent on
military buildup as a viable means of settling its international
disputes.

	Following the collapse of Japanese militarism in 1945, the
nation was forced to make a complete transition from military to
civilian industries almost overnight.  It was a painful task, full of
hardships, but Japan had no alternative.  Immediately after the war,
producers were turning out farming tools and items like pots and pans
in piecemeal fashion, and workers were having a difficult time making
ends meet.

	Eventually Japan enacted a new Constitution, by which it
renounced forever the use of force as a means of settling
international disputes.  Japan pledged that, apart from a small force
necessary for self-defense, it would never possess any more land, sea
or air fighting power.  Moreover, the country decided that it would
not export any weapons or military technology at all, so it became
practically impossible for military-related industries to survive.

	The sole objective of such industries is to develop and
produce weapons of outstanding capability.  Even if the cost rises to
several times more than the initial estimate, for example, the
military will still buy the product as long as it possesses superior
performance.  Companies might engage in fierce bargaining before they
land an order, but after that the principle of competition does not
function at all.  Engineers get plenty of research and development
funds, and managers know that their profits are guaranteed.

	In civilian industries, however, companies have to take
responsibility for everything from market surveys, R&D and production
to sales, and they have to achieve price-performance ratios that
outstrip others in the market.  Engineers have to be content with
limited R&D funds, and profits are far from guaranteed for managers.

	Japanese companies, which staked their survival on a total
transformation from the easygoing military sector to the tough
civilian sector, have managed not only to improve their
price-performance ratios but also to gain a high degree of consumer
satisfaction by adopting strict quality-control measures and by
turning out consumer-friendly products through their meticulous market
surveys, and thereby acquired excellent international competitiveness.
In other words, military defeat turned into economic triumph.

	The achievement of this kind of success requires not only a
drastic change in management philosophy but also the influx of large
number of talented engineers, the standard bearers of technological
innovation.  During the war the Japanese military put a lot of effort
into technological developments in three areas in particular: military
aircraft, optical weapons and electronic weapons.  The most
outstanding engineers were concentrated in these areas.

	When it came time to switch to civilian industries, military
aircraft engineers went over to automobiles, optical weapons engineers
turned to cameras, and electronic weapons engineers moved into
consumer electronics and communications, where they set about
implementing technological innovations at a fevered pace.  As a
result, Japan has managed to become especially strong internationally
in the three areas of automobiles, cameras and electronics.

	The path taken by these engineers was certainly not free of
hurdles.  But they made earnest efforts in searching for the right
course.  Japanese products today, including specialized items like
electronic microscopes, fish detectors, industrial robots and
facsimile machines, as well as more general exports like automobiles,
optical cameras, super large-scale integrated circuits, television
cameras and videocassette recorders, now dominate the world.  In many
cases, their roots go back to wartime technology.

	Despite an uphill battle, the many technological breakthroughs
that were achieved spread confidence among Japan's engineers and
managers, and corporate spending on R&D and capital investment
increased year by year.  The government also supported technological
innovation by subsidizing R&D spending, extending long-term loans at
low interest rates, and providing tax incentives.  And a drastic
ehancement of engineering education at universities and colleges
supported and fueled the country's rapidly expanding industry by
turning out large numbers of engineers.  In this way, the country as a
whole got out and pushed to help the massive drive toward a civilian
technological revolution.

Even though the Cold War has drawn to a close, regional
conflicts are intensifying at an awful pace.  A number of countries,
developing nations as well as the military powers of the West, are
exporting weapons to these regions on a frightening scale.  To
restrain this behavior, which is akin to trading in death, it is
necessary to increase the international competitiveness of the
civilian industries in these countries so that they can acquire
foreign currency on the civilian market.

	Military powers that refuse to wake up from the illusion of
glory in war suffer from a deep-rooted disease that welds the military
and industry together.  As long as the cause of this illness is not cut
away, military-related industries will continue to play as major leaguers,
and civilian industries will remain stuck in the minors.  In Japan,
the civilian industries have moved up to the majors, which means that,
without tough competitors, their products will continue to be
successful on international markets and the trade imbalance will keep on
swelling.

	It is largely to their credit, too, that the commonly accepted
idea of military over civilian technology has been virtually replaced
by the converse conception.  The Japanese have developed civilian high
tech products that contribute to world economic growth and make
military superpowers vulnerably dependent on the state-of-the-art
civilian supplies.

	Transistorized radio and television sets, home video tape
recorders, and other products commercialized under Japanese leadership
have spread to every corner of the world, facilitated exchange of
information across national borders, and played a decisive role in the
worldwide process of democratization.  These products of technological
innovation are rightly known today as "messengers" of freedom.

	Such a track record may well serve as a precious lesson for
the CIS and East European nations, as well as the Western military
powers faced with the hard realities of drastic arms reduction.
Should Japan succeed by persuasion in bringing about a change of heart
in the leadership of the countries concerned, it would win recognition
across the world for an act of genuine international contribution.

< Brilliant Achievement in Pollution Control >

	Facing up to the challenge of reducing air pollution, Japan
was the first in the world to develop a "clean" engine for
automobiles, as a key not only to bringing air pollution under control
but also to establishing the competitive position of the Japanese auto
industry in the international market.

	The world is now confronted with the problems of global
warming due to carbon dioxide, depletion of the ozone layer by CFC
gases, acid rain, radioactive pollution caused by nuclear power plant
accidents, and other global threats.  Japan's distinguished
achievements in pollution control demonstrate that technological
prescriptions are the key not only to curing environmental ills, but
also to promoting the advanced industries involved in the process.
Japan's successful precedents should be encouraging to those who are
committed to addressing the global environmental problem in the years
ahead.

	Without belaboring the point--which can be illustrated by an
unending list of successful precedents--it can be stated unequivocally
that Japan's track record to date and its current proven capabilities
combine to show how technological innovation and high tech-based
industrial activities are going to be both the channel by which Japan
can maximize its international contributions and the source of energy
and drive to generate more of them in the years ahead. The spirit of
working hard with sweat on one's brow should be promulgated to every
niche and corner of the world.

< Neighbors First >

	Western countries are urging Japan to offer economic aid to
the CIS and East European countries, in the aftermath of the political
upheavals which shook that region.  While Japan should, of course, be
ready to bear its fair share of contributions to political stability
in the world, it should not be forgotten that there are great numbers
of people elsewhere in the world who are jobless and poorer still than
those living in the CIS and East European region.

	Closer to Japan, in East Asia, there are, apart from a few
nations that have been enjoying sustained economic growth, hundreds of
millions of people living in poverty and hunger, with standards of
living deplorably inferior to those living in Japan.  Japan has a
heavy neighborly obligation to contribute to improving their quality
of life and assisting their economic growth, which is indispensable to
ensuring political stability in East Asia, which in turn is
indispensable to ensuring Japan's own security.

	The prime minister of a major European country recently
provoked some controversy by criticizing the Japanese people for
working too much.  In order to help billions of people all over the
world to rise from the depths of poverty and hunger, however, not only
the Japanese but also the Europeans need to keep on working harder
than ever.  Close to Japan in East Asia, there are over a billion
people who share with the Japanese the virtue of industriousness, and
the Japanese can work hand in hand with them to build our way for a
better future.



5. Strengthening of Basic Research and Higher Education

< Enhancing Public Support for Basic R&D >

	Needless to say, private corporations play a leading role in
technological innovation, particularly in Japan.  The private business
sector in Japan accounts for 84% of the total national R&D
expenditures, compared to about 65% in major Western countries.  The
private industry is as much applauded for its commitment and the
government is to be blamed for its negligence.

	As Japan continues to make strides in technological
innovation, it has also come under increasing criticism for what is
perceived as its free ride in basic research.  Japan is accused of
investing too little in basic research, and too much in applications,
compared with the other leading countries.  As a result, it is now
being urged to make a contribution to basic science and generic
technology more commensurate with its standing as an economic and
industrial power.  Criticisms are mounting that hardly any Japanese
universities or state-run research institutes are true centers of
excellence where top scholars congregate from all over the world to
carry out basic research and that this results in a significant
imbalance in the flow of researchers and scientific information
between Japan and the other leading countries.

	Clearly, the Japanese government should drastically increase
public founding for universities and state-run research institutes
which are mainly responsible for conducting basic research.  Until
recently, however, any substantial increase in public founding in this
respect did not take place because the top priority of the Japanese
government was to eliminate the budget deficit.  Now that voices
urging the improvement of the situation are increasingly heard not
only internationally but also from national industrial and academic
circles, the government has made a cabinet decision in early 1992 to
initiate substantial budget increase in response to the 18th Report of
the Science and Technology Council which was submitted to the Prime
Minister.  This support should be continued and enhanced to the
maximum possible extent, despite of the current financial hardships
caused by the burst of the "bubble" in real estate and stock market.

	Even in that event, there will still be limits to public
spending, so that private funds will have to be introduced to fill the
balance.  In this regard, the government should provide tax and other
incentives more generously so as to scale-up Japanese private
foundations which are an order of magnitude smaller than their
counterparts in the other leading countries.  Both the government and
private sectors need to work in cooperation to ensure adequate
financial resources.  If this could be worked out, the international
friction could not only be eradicated but also the Japanese
contribution to the human endeavor for uncovering unknown truth could
be intensified.

< Building Centers of Excellence >

	Our top priority under the above circumstances is to enhance
the quality of education and research at the Japanese universities, as
soon as possible, to levels comparable to the institutions of higher
learning in the other leading countries, so as to be recognized
internationally as centers of excellence.  In particular, post
graduate studies which used to be a mere extension of undergraduate
education, will have to be drastically restructured by enlarging the
faculty and modernizing research facilities.

	Closer cooperation with state-run and private research
institutions should be made possible so as to jointly enhance stock
and flow of scientific knowledge and researchers.  The Japanese
language education should be intensified, both nationally and
internationally, for the benefit of visiting foreign scholars.
Further, in view of the fact that scientific studies are increasingly
dependent upon information, drastic improvement will have to be made
for information infrastructure, namely networks and databases.
International networking should be intensified and more information in
international languages should be disseminated.

	Centers of excellence need not be limited of course to
universities.  Though in slightly better condition than the
universities, the facility and staff at Japanese state-run research
institutes are becoming obsolete and aged.  As for the problems of
aging, it is necessary to provide higher mobility to recruit younger
researchers.  Building centers of excellence at the universities is
thus the first step necessary to secure the source of supply of young
and aspiring researchers.

	Renewing obsolete facilities is also an urgent problem.  Some
national institutes have outlived their specific purposes of
establishment, while others are engaged in overlapping and/or out
dated tasks.  A drastic scrap-and-build program of rational
realignment over and above ministerial barriers, along with enhanced
financial support, could lead to invigorating and productive results.

	It is an open secret in Japan that research institutes and
laboratories financed and managed by private corporations, weathering
as they must the severe competition of the marketplace, are in a
position superior, financially and otherwise, to universities and
publicly financed institutions.  But private institutes which may
appear powerful by the Japanese standard pale into insignificance when
compared with their international counterparts including AT&T Bell
Laboratories.

	Institutes run by business corporations are a part of their
profit-seeking activity and are not designed to serve national
interests.  Nevertheless, as the depth and width of their research
activities are bound to grow, their degrees of public contribution
will rise as a result.  Japanese companies are often criticized as
inferior to their Western counterparts in social service.  While
financial aid to cultural and welfare programs is an established form
of social service by private corporations, consolidating their
research institutes and laboratories as centers of excellence should
also be a very legitimate form of social service.  Accordingly as the
circle of centers of excellence expands from universities to state-run
institutes and laboratories, and to those run by private corporations,
the nation as a whole will gain access to full citizenship in the
global community.



6. Concluding Remarks

	Western civilization has its origins in Greece, where a
handful of citizens of the ancient city of Athens toiled studiously
for hundreds of years to consolidate the foundations of philosophy,
literature, drama, geometry, physics, and other fields of human
inquiry as we know them and learn them today.  They were the
architects of an immortal pyramid of knowledge in the history of human
civilization.

	Despite all their skills in innovation, production, commerce
and warfare, the Japanese people have been internationally assessed as
belonging to a second-rate citizen, without any really significant
contributions in thought, religion, science, or art to its credit.
Such an assessment has been a big constraint on Japanese international
activities in science, diplomacy, trade, and all the rest.  We should
try our best not to leave this negative legacy to our future
generations.

	Japan has had the good fortune to come into possession of
robust economic and superb technological prowess.  The history of
human civilization shows that periods of economic prosperity have
allowed science, art, and culture to blossom, as in ancient Athens,
the Saracenic dynasty, and Renaissance Italy.  There is no reason why
Japan should be an exception.  Japan today has established impressive
economic power and has accumulated reserves of technology that have
generated this power.  The people still abide by the noble spirit of
industriousness, and by their commitment to pacifism, egalitarianism,
and liberalism.  If we succeed in solving the problems inherent in
ourselves, we will be able, with confidence and with justice, to
assert ourselves in the twenty-first century, and make genuine and
lasting contributions to the international community.






------- End of Forwarded Message