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Part 1: Creativity of Japan's Science and Technology
Chapter 1 Achievement of Japan's Science and Technology and Its Standard
Section 2 Quantity and Quality of Research Achievement
2. Quality Standard



(1) Papers

As a numerical indicator for judging the importance of a paper, the number of citation is used. The more frequently cited, the paper is considered the more excellent and important.

In terms of the growth in the number of papers presented, Japan is higher than Euro-American countries, but the growth in the number of citation and/or cross-cited, Japan is lower than other countries.

The frequently cited paper is considered to be one to which other researchers having similar study theme are paying their special attention. For that reason, the number of being cited represents the standard of quality. We need to address this matter in the future ( Fig. 2 ).

Fig. 2 Selected Countries' Shares of Citations (Percentage)

(High Impact Paper)

The high-impact paper is one that is most frequently cited and thus considered to have been most influential in that specific field. In 1981, Japan had 106 high-impact papers in total for all study fields. That was more than doubled to 255 in 1998.

Such increase should be understood to have come from the rapid increase in the outbound communication of the top-level studies rather than the growth of overall researches in Japan.

(2) Patents

The number of patents applied for and granted by the Japanese exceeds that of Euro-American countries. That demonstrates a great achievement of Japan ( Fig.3 )

Fig. 3 Nationality-based Comparison of Granted Patents in Selected Countries (1998)

Japan is on the top in terms of the number of patents granted in Japan. In this respect, we may call Japan as "a great world power of patents." ( Fig. 4 )

Fig. 4 Country-based Comparison of Number of Granted Patent in Selected Countries (1998)

Selected countries other than Japan have a tendency to obtain patents in other foreign countries over the world. To the contrary, in the case of Japan, both the ratio of the Japanese granting patents in Japan, and the ratio of patents applied for by the Japanese to the patents granted in Japan are remarkably high.

It is hoped that the patent strategy will be restructured from the global perspective so as to ensure the protection of the patent fruition, and cause the economic growth and moreover, innovations to follow.


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