Title:	INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS OF JAPANESE ENVIRONMENT-RELATED TECHNOLOGIES: AN ANALYSIS USING PATENT DATA
Author(s):	Kenichi Imai
ISBN:	978-989-8704-00-9
Editors:	Theodora Issa, Nurfadhlina Mohd Sharef, Tomayess Issa and Pedro Isaías
Year:	2013
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Environment-related technologies, international competitiveness, Japanese environment-related industry, patent data, revealed technological advantage index
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	87
Last Page:	93
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	In Asia where industrialization and urbanization are still in progress, there is no doubt that environment-related technologies play a crucial role for its sustainable development. Responding to its needs, Japanese firms as well as its central and local governments are active to market their environment-related technologies for Asia. However, there seems the gap between the technological advantage and the international competitiveness of Japanese environment-related industry. Japanese environment-related industry must have the technological advantage in general, but has not gained the international competitiveness yet. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is actually the gap between the technological advantage and the international competitiveness of Japanese environment-related technologies using the patent data. The study found that Japan has the relatively higher specialization in overall environment-related technologies and particularly in the three fields such as energy efficiency in buildings and lighting, emissions abatement and fuel efficiency in transportation, and technologies with potential or indirect contribution to emissions mitigation. It also found that Japan has the relatively lower specialization in general environment management such as air pollution abatement, water pollution abatement, waste management, soil remediation, and environmental monitoring though its share in the world’s international patent applications for general environment management is 20.3%. The study also investigated the technological advantage of Japanese environment-related technology using the patent data filed by Japanese nationals to Japan Patent Office and by other nationals to the patent offices in respective their own countries. It found that the number of patents filed by Chinese nationals to China Patent & Trademark Office is the largest whereas the one by Japanese nationals to Japan Patent Office is the second largest. However, this finding can’t say much about the gap between the technological advantage and the international competitiveness of Japanese environment-related technologies since it is uncertain whether the technological fields covered in the environment area in the database of Japan Patent Office and those covered in the environment-related technologies in the OECD patent database are consistent.
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