JSIS A 472/581 // IBUS 461/561: Science, Technology and Innovation in East Asia—Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China

Instructor

Marie Anchordoguy

Course Description

This course on Science, Technology, and Innovation Policies in East Asia provides undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to read a few key books and several articles on the role of the state and technological change in industrial development in an historical perspective. The lecture course focuses primarily on Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. Students will learn about the rise of these nations’ economies in the post-World War II period, with a focus on their heavy investment in technological development. Japan is discussed first as an example of the first Asian “late developer.” Then we  analyze how South Korea, Taiwan, and China have successfully developed, in part by drawing on key parts of the Japanese model of late development, such as industrial targeting policies, industrial groups, and a heavy emphasis on basic education and human resource development in the field of science and technology. The course will also investigate the problems these nations are currently having in transitioning from their focus on imitation and incremental innovation in manufactured goods to trying to become inventors focused on radical innovation and invention in high-tech service industries in order to maintain healthy economic growth and international competitiveness over the long run.