Japan vs China; Sci/Tech Achievements

[Comandante]

In terms of scientific and technological achievement, which of the two countries do you think has done a better job? Most of you would probably automatically think of Japan and its fancy robotics programs, cars, Maglev train, the envisioned space elevator, katana sword and countless other examples, but the true question really is; is China really that much behind, or is it ahead and why? That's something I'd like to know.

[iNow]

Technology - Hands down, Japan wins.

Science, however, is China all the way. China has been making scientific advances since before the Roman Empire, and they continue to do so today. I also believe they are catching up to Japan in the technology sector, but Japan still supercedes them technologically as of right now.

 

However, if you want to throw a monkey wrench into all of this, consider Singapore in your equation. A very business friendly nation that is...

[Sisyphus]

Or the United States.

[CharonY]

If we are talking about now, then China is still lagging way behind. Mostly out of organizational and structural reasons.

 

However they have been pouring out a lot of money to improve infrastructure and to lure back home Chinese scientists. This is reflected in the recent increase in output from Chinese research institutes. Depending on their ability to further improve research infrastructure, improve their own educational system to train junior scientists (atm they are still very dependent on sending their top scholars to other countries, in which they quite often become succesfull and stay) and are able to attract more top scientists, they may well catch up in a few decades (judging from the improvements over the last one). Though it also depends much on the economic situation, of course.

 

And I am counting Japan to the top science countries, together with a number of countries in the EU (most notably UK and Germany), as well as USA. There differences in the top fields in each of the countries, nonetheless they are the leading nations when it comes to science.

[Comandante]

I had similar sort of idea like iNow, but then I thought about space technology and exploration, in terms of both science and tech it seems to me that China is way ahead in those terms, in part thanks to Russia for support but also to their own efforts. I don't know how much that counts though, is it just a publicity stunt or does it really take that much skill to launch people into space?

 

I say Russia helped China with a lot of things but that's not to say Japan did everything on its own either. The way I see it Japan has their reputation for building things the way things are supposed to be built (hence their technological supremacy), but a lot of Japanese technology was based on ideas/patents originating from Europe or US. Anyone disagree?

 

The issue that lies therein is how does one count a significant scientific or technological achievement of one country? Does the achievement have to be original or can it involve ideas and patents from other countries?

 

CharonY, it seems to me you didn't include China in that list of scientifically 'leading nations', correct? If so, why not?

 

One interesting fact that I found is that Japan has almost 3 times as many Nobel laureates than China (particularly with respect to science); the question then is, does winning a Nobel prize count towards scientific achievement for one country or does the achievement really depend on how those findings are used?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_laureates_by_country

[CharonY]

CharonY, it seems to me you didn't include China in that list of scientifically 'leading nations', correct? If so, why not?

 

Simply put because of the relatively low output from Chinese institutions. Only in the last decade or so did they really put up speed. Also, if you check the Chinese nobel laureates I am sure that you will find them doing their research in the USA. China is trying to get back top scientists (a similar problem that Germany faces, albeit for different reasons) and is recruiting aggressively. But again, the infrastructure is still lower than that of the ones that I would count to the leading nations.

[Mr Skeptic]

I'd say China is behind Japan in both science and technology. But that seems set to change. China has such a large population, the only thing holding them back is themselves (eg the Great Firewall of China).

[CharonY]

While population is a great resource it requires heavy investments (e.g. in the educational system). They are now pouring money into it, but as it is true for basically all countries, it is not easy to find a good educational system.

[Comandante]

but as it is true for basically all countries, it is not easy to find a good educational system.

 

Fully agreed with that.

 

Simply put because of the relatively low output from Chinese institutions. Only in the last decade or so did they really put up speed. Also, if you check the Chinese nobel laureates I am sure that you will find them doing their research in the USA. China is trying to get back top scientists (a similar problem that Germany faces, albeit for different reasons) and is recruiting aggressively.

 

That partly makes sense, but I see what you mean. Also, do you think that if a well trained and skilled scientist who wanted to find a good job could do so better in China or Germany than in US, UK, Australia or others, or does that only count for people with Chinese background?

 

 

In addition to things previously said, does anyone know of a way to find out or website that collects data on % use of patents in industry worldwide? Based on some figures from sales of products worldwide I've noticed a rather large number of Chinese owned patents; not that I know the precise figure or source, it was a while ago, but would like to look it up again so if anyone has anything on that would be great.

 

[edit]: an interesting article I found; http://www.scidev.net/en/news/china-joins-top-ten-for-international-patents.html

Edited September 30, 2008 by Sysco