Japanese Government Policies and Business Activities for Open Innovation and Implications to Korea

Purpose: The purposes of this research are to review Japanese government policies and business activities as to open innovation and to suggest implications for Korean government and firms. Research design, data, and methodology: Previous researches on open innovation in Korea were reviewed and the contribution of this research was discussed. Then, an analytical framework based on national innovation system was developed for this research. Referring to the framework, this article focused on the role of the Japanese government policies and the activities of Japanese large firms for promoting open innovation in Japanese society. Results: With the investigation of Japanese government policies and business activities related to open innovation, this article found the following things. At first, as to the overview of Japanese R&D situation, the R&D expenditure of Japan has stagnated since the global financial crisis and nowadays the R&D expenditure to GDP ratio of Japan is behind those of Korea and the U.S. In addition, the source and expenditure structure of R&D budget in Japan reflects the principle of self-sufficiency (Jimaesyugi) of Japanese firms. From 2000s, Japanese society began to realize environmental changes and the need for open innovation which emphasizes collaboration with outside organizations. Then, the Japanese government tried to develop and execute various policies to accelerate open innovation in Japanese society. In addition, Japanese large firms initiated diverse activities for open innovation, which are shown in the cases of two Japanese firms, Konica Minolta and Denso. Implications: This study tried to suggest implications for Korean government and firms, referring to Japanese experiences as to open innovation. As implications to the Korean government, it emphasized the following points: the need for pan-governmental endeavor to boost open innovation, introduction of a tax reduction system accelerating open innovation, implementation of open innovation policies based on the viewpoint of innovation ecosystem, and revitalization of open innovation with information provision and award systems. Implications to Korean firms were also suggested, such as the need for strong attention and effort to open innovation by top management with strategic viewpoint, and establishment of inside organizations specializing in open innovation and active utilization of human resources from outside.