日本陷入创新泥潭

    日本企业的研发经费都冲到马桶里去了吗？日本领先的高科技卫浴设备制造商东陶集团（TOTO）推出的一些创新产品表明，情况似乎确实如此。该公司推出了一款新型马桶，它居然能以160公里的时速射出一个足球。这个古怪而又了不起的科技产物充分显示了日本驰名已久的独创精神。这个过分夸张的精巧装置同时也表明，日本企业所花的大量研发经费到底在哪儿出了岔子。

    日本的一些企业老是搞这么多似乎鸡毛蒜皮、没有前途的小发明，这早就让东京的技术咨询师林信行觉得恼火了。他说，要理解这类现象，就要了解日本人的思维定势和教育体系。他的观点是：“日本人容易把手段当成目的。在日本的学校里，记住入学考试中那些难题的题型，要比探究事物的本质重要得多。”

    另外一些人则认为，对一个制造型经济来说，这种一门心思是有效的，但它却让日本企业走向数字经济的转型之路变得异常艰难。笠原吉川是东京大学的（Tokyo's University）一名研究员，他已为韩国的电子巨头三星公司（Samsung）效力了10年之久。在他看来，日本的这些技术型公司，例如拥有巨大研发中心的电讯巨头Docomo公司之所以无法影响市场，就是因为他们对全新的市场不够了解，或者不愿做出改变来适应它。他说：“日本也许拥有很优秀的技术创新，但对企业来说，这已不再是一种竞争优势。因为日本的设计太贵，还缺乏苹果（Apple）和三星那样的市场洞察力。”他的意思，换言之就是这些日本企业没有提供消费者想要的产品。

    随着日本经济陷入更深层次的衰退，日本几大消费电子巨头令人震惊的惨淡销售数字更证明了这一点——尽管日本每年的专利申请数量在全球仅次于美国和中国。实际上，据世界知识产权组织（World Intellectual Property Organization）的最新数据称，2010年日本的专利申请量为344,598件，仅次于美国的500万件，占世界专利申请总量大约18%。

    批评人士称，这个辉煌数字掩盖了一个事实，即大量专利常常是挪用、或者模仿美国原型，做一些小改进而已。劳埃德解释说：“研究人员都有专利配额，哪怕是一点小改进，他们也被鼓励拿去申报专利。实际上，这被看成是一种练习，而不是研发那些往往风险和投入都同样巨大的突破性技术。”他补充说，对日本人来说，从其他国家拿来最好的技术并在本国应用是最高效的做法。“就这方面来看，日本的技术研发并不生产初级产品，而是生产有用的产品。”

    与此同时，日本的研发产出正在下降。从地域来看，北美企业的研发支出增长率为9.7%，略高于全球平均值9.6%，而日本企业的增长仅为5.4%。实际上，日本企业可能对长期规划和巨额研发投入这种模式丧失了信心，过去正是这种模式能收回那些失败产品，推出轰动一时的新品。过去十年来，日本的消费电子业口口声声要实施变革，甚至强有力的官方舆论也努力推动它们进行改革，但结果却徒劳无功。

    Is Japan's research and development spending going down the toilet? Some of the innovation, for example, at the country's leading high-tech lavatory maker Toto, suggests perhaps so. The company has developed a new washroom model that is inexplicably capable of shooting a soccer ball at 160 kilometers-per-hour. This bizarre and wonderful piece of technology showcases the ingenuity Japan is famous for. The overly ornate contraption could also symbolize where much of research and development spending by Japanese companies has gone wrong.

    That some in Japan pursue so many seemingly trivial, unwarranted inventions has long vexed Tokyo-based technology consultant Nobuyuki Hayashi. His explanation, he says, is to understand the Japanese mind-set and educational system. "[The] Japanese tend to mistake the means for the end. At Japanese schools it's more important to memorize the patter of tricky questions presented at the entrance exam than to study the real nature of things," he argues.

    This type of focus, others agree, was useful for a manufacturing economy but makes the transformation into a digital economy difficult for Japan Inc. Tech companies, such as Docomo with its vast R&D centers, are failing to make an impact because they don't understand or are not willing to change to suit the new market says researcher at Tokyo's University, Ryozo Yoshikawa who spent 10 years working for Samsung, the Korean giant. "Japan may have superior technological innovation, but this is no longer a competitive advantage for businesses because Japanese designs are too expensive and lack the savvy that the likes of Apple (AAPL) and Samsung have." In other words, he says they are not offering what the consumers want.

    As Japan slides deeper into recession, the proof is in the appalling sales figures of consumer electronics makers -- despite the fact that Japan is third after the US and China for the number of patents filed each year. In fact, Japan put in for 344,598 patents in 2010 according to the latest figures from World Intellectual Property Organization. That's just behind the USA's half-million applications and nearly 18% of the world total.

    Critics say that this impressive figure masks the fact that many patents are focused on small incremental improvements often using and imitating an American model. "Researchers are set patent quotas and are encouraged to file on any minor improvement," explains Lloyd. "Indeed, it's considered a learning exercise, and rather than creating breakthrough technologies which typically entail high risk and expense." He adds that it is highly efficient for Japan to get the best technologies from other countries and apply them at home. "In this respect Japan's tech R&D doesn't produce raw products, but it does produce useful outputs."

    Meanwhile, R&D output is falling in Japan. Regionally, companies based in North America grew their R&D spending by 9.7% -- slightly above the global average of 9.6% -- while Japanese firms grew theirs at 5.4%. Indeed, Japanese companies may be losing faith in the long term-planing and heavy R&D spending model that was able to absorb the misses as well as generate the hits in the past. Over the last 10 years Japan's consumer electronics industry promised reform and even the country's powerful mandarins tried to push them to evolve to no avail.