NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
TOKYO REGIONAL OFFICE

January 04, 2001

Report Memorandum #01-01

Summary of R&D Survey - JFY2000
- Slight decrease in expenditures from the previous year -

On November 28, 2000 the Science and Technology Agency (STA) made public a summary of the survey result on R&D in Japan compiled by the Management and Coordination Agency (MCA).  The numbers of research-related personnel are those as of April 1, 2000 and the amounts of R&D expenditure are based on the actual result during one year retroactive from the previous account closing date closest to April 1, 2000.  The survey was sent to about 12,300 companies whose capitalizations are larger than Yen 10 million, about 1,300 national, public, and private research institutions, and about 2,900 universities, colleges and technical colleges. The Management and Coordination Agency has been conducting the survey every year ever since 1953.  As STA's summary does not include the data for universities, the data for universities used in this report are from the MCA's summary report. MCA will publicize the full report around April 2001.   [NB: on December 28, 2000, the exchange rate was approximately Yen 112/$.]  

I.            Overview 

Due to the extremely tight economic situation in Japan, total R&D expenditures and their ratio to GDP have slightly decreased, although they had increased from 1995 until 1999. Total R&D expenditures (including human literature and social science) were Yen 16.01 trillion, 0.8% decrease from the previous year. Their ratio to GDP was 3.24%. R&D expenditures by the industrial sector have decreased to Yen 12.45 trillion, 1.15% decrease from the previous year. On the other hand, the Government's R&D expenditures have increased to Yen 3.50 trillion, 0.15% increase from the previous year. It was the third consecutive increase, which reflects the Japanese Government's policy described in the S&T Basic Plan. 

R&D Expenditures and their Ratio against GDP 

II.           R&D Expenditures in Industry Sector: By Size of Company 

Companies' in-house R&D expenditures have decreased by 1.6% from Yen 10.8 trillion to Yen 10.6 trillion, although they had been increasing from 1995 to 1998. This is the result of the decrease in the in-house R&D expenditures by the companies whose capitalizations are more than Yen 0.1 billion. They have dropped by 7% at companies whose capitalizations are Yen 0.1 billion-Yen 1 billion and 1.3% at companies whose capitalizations are more than Yen 1 billion.   

R&D Expenditures in Industry by Size of Company Capital
(Yen Billion) 

  
III.          R&D Expenditures in Industry Sector: By Product 

The R&D expenditures in the IT and biotechnology-related industries have greatly increased. On the other hand, they have dramatically dropped at traditional industries. Also, companies have increasingly been out-sourcing R&D. In manufacturing industries they have increased in precision machinery, communication, electronic/electric measurement equipment, food, and pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, they have dropped by more than 10% in such industries as electric machinery, ceramics, steel, and metals. In non-manufacturing industries such as transportation, communication and public welfare, they have increased by more than 30%. The ratio for out-sourcing R&D expenditure against in-house R&D expenditure was 11.8%. 

R&D Expenditures by Industry
(Yen Billion) 

  
IV.         Nature of R&D Expenditures 

Companies are trying to put more emphasis on development than basic and applied research. The ratio has increased from 72.6% to 73.7%. 

Nature of R&D Expenditure
(%) 

  
V.           Change in the Number of Researchers 

The total number of researchers in natural science has slightly increased by 644,000, 0.8% increase from the previous year. The number of women researchers has continued to increase at companies, research institutions and universities and the total number was 78,000. Women researchers' ratio to the total number of researchers was 10.5%, the highest in the history. 

Number of Researchers
(Thousand People) 

  
VI.         Research Support Staff 

The total number of research support staff has decreased, although it has slightly increased at national universities and it has remained the same at national research institutes. The number of research support staff at companies has decreased by 7.2%. Especially the number of technicians has decreased by 11.2%. Further breakdown shows that the number of technicians has decreased by 8.4% in communication/electronic/

electric measurement industries and 17% in automobile industry. The number of research support staff per one researcher at national research institutes was 0.84 and 0.25 at national universities, about the same compared with those in the previous year. 

Research Support Staff
(Number of People) 

 * - Research assistants: Those who help researchers and work under researchers' instruction and have potential to be researchers in the future. 

VII.        Technological Trade 

Due to the sharp increase in technological exports and decrease in technological imports, the ratio of export against import was 2.34, highest in the history. It was most prominent in the automobile industry, 70.05% (export/import).  In contrast, the ratio was 0.77 in communication/electronic/electric measurement industries and 0.01 in software industry. 

Export/Import
(Yen Million) 

Technological Trade by Industry
(Yen Billion) 

VIII.      Universities 

Total R&D expenditures at universities were Yen 3.21 trillion, 0.4% decrease from the previous year. The R&D expenditure in Natural Science was Yen 1.99 trillion, 1.1% decrease from the previous year. If it is viewed by character of work, basic research was 52.6%, applied 38.0%, and development 9.4% (See IV. Nature of Expenditures above). Expenditures for basic research dominate more than half of total R&D expenditures with a decrease from the previous year by 0.8%.   

R&D Expenditure at Universities 

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 NSF/T: KShinohara - December 2000

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