著者

高石 義一

出版者

産業学会

雑誌

産業学会研究年報 (ISSN:09187162)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.1988, no.3, pp.24-38,78, 1988-03-31 (Released:2009-10-08)

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Over the past thirty years, the Japanese computer industry has dramatically grown and Japan has become one of the most-advanced computer countries. This remarkable growth of the Japanese computer industry was partly due to the industry's own efforts for development of advanced technologies, quality improvement, active importation of foreign technologies, formation of various business relationships with foreign computer manufacturers, and an aggressive pricing and other marketing strategies. However, the Japanese computer industry's success was largely due the Japanese government's computer industry promotion policy. An adoption of such an industrial policy by the Japanese government is not unique to the computer industry, but a mere copy or an adaptation of the industrial policy previously adopted by the Japanese government for other industries such as steel, chemical, shipbuilding, textile, automobile and so forth.Japan has been successful in developing its various key industries by adopting and implementing such industrial policies particularly since the late 1940s after World War II.All industrial policies so far adopted by the Japanese government to develope those industries were virtually the same in their major characteristics and constituents of the policy. However, a magnitude of the government's assistance to the Japanese computer industry in finance, providing the legislative basis for the industry growth and local computer manufacturers' market domination including antitrust exemption of various collusive activities among the Japanese computer manufacturers and a market reservation for Japanese manufacturers far exceeded to the assistance to other industries.The Japanese computer industrial policy consisted of the following measures: (1) restrictions on importation of foreign computer and on the inflow of foreign capitals into Japan so that a growth of the infant Japanese computer industry would not be hindered; (2) the governments' assistance in an acquisition of foreign computer technologies, for example, through a way that unless the foreign computer manufacturers make their patents open and available to the Japanese computer manufacturers, these computer manufacturers were not allowed to remit a profit and repariate the invested capital; (3) a provision of huge amount of the government subsidies and the low-rate interest loans the statutory basis of which was the computer industry promotion laws such as the Designated Machinery and Electronic Industry Promotion Provisional Law (1971-1978); (4) creation of various governmental research projects under which the government provided the huge amount of research fund for developing computer technologies to compete with foreign competitors; only the Japanese computer manufacturers were allowed to participatc in such projects; this was another form of the government's financial assistance; (5) tax incentive to computer leases in case where the special computer leasing company which was created under the special legislation was utilized; again, only the Japanese computer manufacturers were entitled to use such a leasing-company; and (6) the Cabinet Determination of “Buy Japanese Computer Policy” (September, 1963) under which the national and local governments as well as educational institutions were forced to use the Japanese computers; even private companies were requested to cooperate to this policy.Such an industrial policy successfully built up the Japanese computer industry on one hand, but it obstructed a fair competition in the industry and distorted its industry structure which should have been formed based on the free-competition market principle on the other hand. The major task for the Japanese government from now on is to make all segments of the market open and to restore a free and fair competition principle in the market.