Japanese biotechnology: Government,corporations, and technology transfer

In the newly emerging field of biotechnology, Japan so far is generally considered to be lagging somewhat behind the US. Through the judicious application of industrial policy to encourage the growth of the industry, however, Japan is rapidly gaining on the US lead. Joint ventures between large Japanese Companies specializing in areas such as chemicals and food and new American biotechnology companies play a key role in the technology-transfer process. This paper analyzes the dynamics and potential of Japanese efforts in biotechnology. Certain structural features of the Japanese economy, such as extensive corporate financial resources, traditional fermentation expertise, and, in particular, government policy to encourage high-technology research and development. serve to increase Japanese competitiveness in the field.     

Influences of return migration on international collaborative research networks: cases of Japanese scientists returning from the US

The emigration of scientists facilitates the formation of international networks. However, are ties in such networks maintained after the scientists return to their respective home countries? Using data from the Web of Science, this paper analyzes whether Japanese migrant scientists returning from the US maintain the collaborative research network ties that they formed during their stay in the US and, if so, what features of these ties contribute to maintaining these relationships. The geographical distance between the US and Japan can impede the transfer of knowledge that is transmitted most effectively through face-to-face interactions. However, social proximity may compensate for geographical distance. Accordingly, the ties that Japanese scientists have formed with other Japanese scientists living in the US are more likely to be maintained than the ties that they have formed with scientists of different ethnicities. Social proximity was also measured by past experiences in collaborative research. The ties to scientists with whom Japanese scientists collaborated more frequently or co-produced papers with higher citation counts are more likely to be maintained after the scientists return to Japan. When collaborative research of American and Japanese scientists is worthwhile, they obtain mutual benefits through a ‘give and take’ in which they compensate for one partner’s lack of knowledge by the other partner’s knowledge. In a research field with which the developmental gap between the US and Japan is great, ties are less likely to be maintained.     

Physicians' conflicts of interest in Japan and the United States: lessons for the United States

Japanese health policy shows that even with physician ownership and the absence of for-profit, investor-owned health care, physicians' conflicts of interest thrive. Physician dispensing of drugs and ownership of hospitals and clinics were justified in Japan as ways to avoid commercialization of medicine. Instead, they create physicians' conflicts and fuel patient overuse of services. Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) has responded by introducing per-diem payment, thereby creating incentives to decrease services in ways similar to those of American managed care organizations, but with none of their benefits, such as coordination of care, oversight of physicians practices, and quality assurance. Although the United States and Japanese health care systems are organized and financed differently there is convergence in the source of their physicians' conflicts and the way they are addressed. The United States is starting to integrate institutional and physician payment and align their incentives, in a traditional Japanese way. In so doing, the United States creates new physicians' conflicts and reduces the role of countervailing incentives and power, an advantage of previous policy. Japan, in turn, has combined incentives to increase and decrease services, thus moving closer to the U.S. policy.     

Mandatory accounting disclosure by small private companies

This article analyzes how mandatory accounting disclosure is grounded on different rationales for private and public companies. It also explores technological changes, such as computerised databases and the Internet, which have recently made disclosure of company accounts by small companies potentially less costly and more valuable, thanks to electronic filing and universal online access to credit information systems. These recent developments favour policies that would expand the scope of mandatory publication for small companies in countries where it is voluntary. They also encourage policies to reduce the costs and enhance the value of disclosure through administrative reforms of filing, archive and retrieval systems. Survey and registry evidence on how the information in the accounts is valued and used by companies is consistent with these claims about the evolution of the tradeoff of costs and benefits that should guide policy in this area.     

民营上市公司财务监督问题——兼评《上市公司治理准则》《证券法》的相关修订

在日本设置监查委员会等三类委员会的公司中,监查委员会和会计监查人为公司财务监督的最终把门人。日本立法者虽然给予了这两大监督机构一定的独立性,但是东芝公司财务造假事件的发生却反映出这两大机构背后的许多问题。我国《上市公司治理准则》和《证券法》对公司财务监督的有关修改难以解决民营上市企业的财务造假问题。在我国,作为民营上市公司内部财务监督把门人的审计委员会和日本的监查委员会一样,有着交叉任职和缺乏专业性的问题,这使得聘任财会专业的专职审计委员显得有所必要。同时,类似于日本的情形,独立性、会计师事务所的强制轮换制度缺失和时间压力是会计师事务所担任我国民营上市公司外部财务监督把门人时所面临的问题,对此可采取的改革措施有赋予审计委员会对会计事务所的选解任权和报酬决定权、限制每年年初前4个月签字会计师审计的公司数量等。     

中国抗战与日本南进政策的选择

二战中日本选择南进政策的根本动因何在？从全局上看,日本选择南进与中国抗战有必然的联系。正是中国抗战促使日本放弃了北进,而不得不贸然南进。南进既是日本帝国主义的无奈之举,又是破釜沉舟之策,由此注定了日本的最终失败。从这种意义上说,日本帝国主义的失败始于侵华战争。     

勒斯勒尔草案股份公司治理规则及发展

德国学者赫尔曼·勒斯勒尔帮助日本制订了第一部公司法（草案）,其中关于股份公司的一般规则,特别是股份公司机关的法的构造奠定了日本公司治理结构的深厚基础,了解这些可以掌握公司法中董事会、监事会、股东大会的历史流变和股份公司治理结构的发展脉络,并体会公司治理仍存在的制度性困惑。     

The limits of regulatory convergence: globalization and GMO politics in the south

Is globalization promoting regulatory convergence in agricultural biotechnology policies in the South? This article examines the nature and limits of regulatory convergence in the field of agri-biotechnology and investigates the effects that international forces have on biotechnology and biosafety policies in developing countries. Based on detailed case studies of Mexico, China and South Africa this article shows that these three leading biotechnology countries in the South are exposed to powerful international influences but are responding to the regulatory challenges of genetically modified organisms (GMO) adoption in distinctive ways. The existing regulatory polarization between US and EU biotechnology approaches has not forced a convergence around either of these two international models. GMO policies in the South do not simply follow the binary logic of the US–EU regulatory conflict. Instead, they integrate elements from both regulatory approaches and are steering a course that suggests substantial regulatory diversity in the South. The globalization of biotechnology thus goes hand in hand with regulatory diversity in the developing world. Furthermore, regulatory polarization between the EU and US has helped to open up political space in key developing countries.     

从三个“谁”的角度分析中国国有公司治理——鉴于日本的失败经验

在日本,公司治理的效力很早以前就成为较大的问题,很多人认为日本的许多经营者监督机制并没有发挥应有的作用,而是存在很多漏洞,这是因为日本的法律和现实情况之间存在很大的距离,比如日本的法律规定股东大会选任监事和董事,董事会和监事对董事或者代表董事进行监督,而在现实情况中,社长把握着极大的权力,可以选任自己的部下作为监事和董事,甚至在退休之后都可以垂帘听政。因此,20世纪90年代以后,日本引进了美国式的公司治理制度,但是这种公司治理制度改革不能认为是很成功的,以日本的失败经验为基础分析中国大型国有公司的公司治理问题很有参考价值,这就是日本没有从三个"谁"的视点进行改革。     

The Effectiveness of the Brief Prison‐Based Methamphetamine Abuse Treatment Program

This paper describes recent changes in policy and procedures to address drug offenders in Japan. Methamphetamine use is the major substance problem as one in every eight arres‐ tees involves a violation of the Stimulant Control Act and sentence lengths have increased in recent years. Prevalence is difficult to determine, but the drug has a long history in Japan; methamphetamines were first synthesized by a Japanese scientist in 1893 and legal use was common during WWII. New treatment and correctional approaches adopted since 2007 are discussed.     

The real lessons of Japanese research consortia

US consortia were right to look to Japan back in the mid-1980s for a model, but details on how Japanese achieved success were scarce and the Americans did not look closely enough. The Japanese have developed an effective way to use competitive forces to promote innovation in a consortium. The US must put industry in the lead in order to develop programs that reflect broad strategic priorities. And industry associations must play a more active role in diffusing the innovations developed by the consortia.     

Global Environment Threats and a Divided Northern Community

The EU, Japan, and the US now share many environmental norms, laws, and institutions and cooperate on international environmental matters through numerous bilateral and multilateral channels. They disagree, however, on how to deal with some of the most serious issues facing the global environment and the quality of human life including wide-scale biodiversity loss, climate change, the use of genetically modified (GM) organisms; the trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes, and chemical safety. As these are all issues that require the involvement of developing countries if global environmental protection efforts are to be effective, the discord that exists among the Northern states is of tremendous significance. The US has pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol arguing that the treaty is poorly designed and would be detrimental to the US economy. Japan and the EU have had to try to find a way to bring the treaty into force without the participation of the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and to convince participating countries to meet their targets even though this may put them at a competitive disadvantage. In the case of biodiversity loss, although the US initiated international negotiations on biodiversity preservation, it has refused to join the EU and Japan in ratifying the Convention on Biological Diversity. There are also differences between the US, on the one side, and Japan and the EU on the other, regarding the use of GM organisms. This article analyses the reasons for the differences that have emerged among northern states in their international environmental policy positions and what the implications of this northern policy divide are for the effectiveness and legitimacy of international environmental protection efforts.     

日本恢复刑事陪审团制度的动因及其合理性

近来,日本政府宣布将恢复和修改陪审法,建立陪审团制度,实现接近市民的司法.人们希望重新采用陪审团制度,以避免或尽量减少法官的错误裁判,并提升公众的司法信赖感.在陪审制度的类型选择上,日本政府面临英美陪审团制度和欧洲大陆混合法庭制度两种选择.在文化上,日本社会的等级制性质,对权威人物的高度信赖,日本人的团体意识及维持和谐的愿望,有利于陪审团制度的有效运行.在社会方面,日本社会的大多数人属于受过良好教育的、同质性的中产阶级,这有助于陪审团制度的功能与目标的实现.在法律上也没有阻止日本重新引进陪审团制度的障碍.因此,日本将会促成更可能是一种以英美模式为基础的陪审团制度.     

Bots,cops, and corporations: on the limits of enforcement and the promise of polycentric regulation as a way to control large-scale cybercrime

Botnets currently pose the most serious threat to the digital ecosystem, providing an infrastructure that enables bank fraud, distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), and click fraud. During the past few years, three main approaches have been used to fight botnets. First, police organizations have periodically arrested prominent hackers and scammers, hoping such high-profile operations would have a deterrent effect. Second, Microsoft has performed a number of takedowns, using an innovative blend of legal and technical means that attempt to disrupt botnet operations and reduce their profitability. Third, some countries – Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Netherlands, and Germany – encourage harm reduction strategies that rely on public-private partnerships involving internet service providers, anti-virus companies, and regulatory authorities. This article describes these three approaches (incapacitation, disruption, and harm reduction), the challenges they face, and their respective effectiveness in protecting the digital ecosystem from large-scale online harm.     

UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF RECIPROCITY REQUIREMENT FOR RECOGNITION AND ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN JUDGMENTS IN JAPAN

This article deals with reciprocity requirement for recognition of foreign judgments in Japan. Following German law, Japanese law requires reciprocity to the rendering state in addition to the jurisdiction of the state, the service of process, and the compatibility with Japanese public policy. Although Japanese courts have rarely refused the recognition of foreign judgments for lack of reciprocity for a long time, some Chinese judgments recently have not been recognized for this reason. The author clarifies first with historical review what was the purpose of the Japanese legislator, when the original law of 1890 required the reciprocity by international treaties, and when later the reform law of 1926 required the simple reciprocity that is similarly provided in the current law. The author surveys then the Japanese case law concerning the reciprocity requirement after the reform of 1926. The author focuses further on the reciprocity between Japan and China and compares the Japanese practice with the German one that led to a different result. Last, it is concluded that the reciprocity requirement is contrary to the protection of human rights under Japanese constitution.     

Beyond innovation: the Small Business Innovation Research program as entrepreneurship policy

Entrepreneurship or new firm formation plays an increasingly important role in knowledge-based economic development. Public policy to encourage new firm formation has not focused on high quality, high potential firms, and the search for entrepreneurship policy with high economic impact is still needed. This research evaluates the efficacy of the US Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program from the perspective of promoting high technology entrepreneurship. In particular, we examine whether the local presence of SBIR awards is associated with increased new firm formation rates in the high technology sector. Although the primary objective of SBIR is to facilitate technological commercialization in small businesses, our policy analysis based on spatial multivariate methods suggests that this program may also serve as an effective entrepreneurship policy.     

Comparing Japanese and American Industrial Effluent Control: A Case Study of the Consequences of Contrasting Regulatory Styles

Based on the experiences of a multinational corporation with contrasting effluent control in the United States and Japan, this article suggests that American regulations are more costly to comply with, but do not necessarily sustain superior effectiveness to the Japanese counterparts. The informal character of Japanese regulations and cooperative interactions between industry and government appear to encourage the firm to implement measures that overcomply with the current laws, and may reduce the marginal cost of pollution control. On the other hand, the greater legalism and contentious process associated with American regulations dampen the firm's incentives to overcomply with permits requirements and to adopt certain environmental management practices that the firm has employed in its Japanese factories.     

生物技术与国际法

随着生物技术的飞速发展,它在现实生活中碰到了一些新的问题,其中既有知识产权法律保护问题,又有社会伦理道德等理论问题;既有政府管理部门实际管理政策问题,又有实践中关涉公民的食品安全等切身利益问题。本文拟结合国内外生物技术知识产权保护的现状,对生物技术与专利、生物技术与食品安全及生物技术与WTO有关协定的关系做些初步的探讨。