Title: From collaboration to cross-over – changing university-industry relation in Japan

Authors: Masayuki Kondo

Addresses: Yokohama National University, 79-7 Tokiwadai Hodogaya-ku Yokohama 240-8501, Japan

Abstract: The paper discusses the university-industry relation in Japan. After presenting a model of university-industry collaboration and discussing the necessity of university-industry collaboration, two Japanese historical experiences are presented to better understand a current university-industry relation. One is that Japan was the first country that established an engineering department in a university structure in the world. The other is that a public research institute led a large number of companies to commercialise its research results. Then, after Japanese university-industry-collaboration policies are discussed comparing with the situation in the USA, Japanese recent movements in university-industry relation are discussed. Joint research increased first. Then, licensing university technologies to companies increased. Recently, university spin-offs have been established in a large number. The university-industry relation in Japan is changing from the collaboration between the university sector and the industry sector to the cross-over of the two sectors as seen in other countries as well.

Keywords: national innovation systems; NIS; university-industry collaboration; university-industry cross-over; institutional change; joint research; licensing; spin-offs; Japan; technology transfer; higher education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTTC.2010.029428

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, 2010 Vol.9 No.1/2, pp.111 - 132

Published online: 30 Nov 2009 *

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