Learning the R & D System: University Research in Japan and the United States (1989)

Summary: The Office of Japan Affairs of the National Research Council is organizing a series of workshops on the differences and similarities in the working environment for research in Japan and the US. Understanding these differences is essential to American scientists and engineers to improve access to Japan’s research system, and to expand mutually beneficial collaboration between the two countries. The bilateral dialogue on “Coexistence in a Technological World: Cooperation and Competition in R&D” consists of three workshops, focusing in turn on universities, bridging organizations, and corporations as research settings. Each workshop brings together senior scientists, engineers, and others involved in and concerned about research and development in the two countries. The first workshop on university laboratories was held January 9-10, 1989. The discussion focused on the culture of academic research, large university research laboratories, university-industry relations, and the experiences of foreign researchers in the US and Japan.