The dynamics of high-technology policy in Japan: Government, institutions, and the chemical industry

The Japanese government is famed for its intervention policies. But it is selective. This dissertation explores the role of the Japanese government in industrial development by focusing on those sectors which were not granted governmental support. This study attempts to elucidate the motivations behind the government's policies toward the Japanese chemical industry since the end of World War II.; The Japanese chemical industry experienced three distinct phases of government intervention during that time, beginning with the absence of promotion during the late 1940s and 1950s, to the promotion of process development between the mid-1950s and 1970s, and ending with a shift in policy to promote basic research and development for product development since the early 1980s.; The Japanese policy strategy is interesting for three reasons: First, this approach varies substantially from the support the Japanese government has traditionally granted its steel industry, as this industry has enjoyed broad-based support since the 19th century. Second, the Japanese government--unlike the German postwar government--chose not to organize industry-specific promotion for chemicals during the immediate postwar era, because the skill base was not sufficient to adopt imported technology, making it difficult to enter the emerging petrochemical industry. Finally, during the early 1980s, MITI departed from its previous policy strategy and began to support basic R&D in the chemical industry by introducing a set of new institutions to facilitate collaboration between government and industry for product development. This study suggests that the government's decision was supported by the automobile industry--one of the chemical industry's biggest customers--as it approached MITI for assistance in promoting a stronger science base in chemicals.; While it is not clear exactly how much autonomy MITI enjoys vis-a-vis powerful industrial interests, it does appear to have some. MITI bureaucrats had developed their own strategic vision of the needs of chemicals and had begun to implement a fundamental shift in policy altering key elements of the institutional structure of industry promotion by the time the auto industry approached MITI for assistance. Will the institutional change be effective in chemicals? It is too early to judge but the effort of institutional change provides some useful insights in the way the Japanese political economy works.