Science and Technology Policy in Japan: The Pharmaceutical Industry and New Technology

Since the late nineteenth century Japan has operated government co-ordination of an industrial policy — ‘any policy targeted at improving industrial performance’ — and even a technology policy — ‘a set of policies involving government intervention with the intent of affecting the process of technological innovation’.1 Japan is no longer unusual in this respect, as many other states have either consciously put together bundles of policies with the intention of improving industrial performance or technological innovation, or else are custodians of systems where there are a number of separate policies whose combined effect amounts to much the same thing. Nevertheless it is Japan which is considered (or feared) to be most effective in creating plans for industrial and economic growth. However, it is becoming clear that there is even in Japan no single recipe for success and each industrial sector presents peculiar difficulties. Perhaps no industry is more peculiar or more reliant on government policy than the pharmaceutical industry. The prices of most of the drugs prescribed are fixed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW), it is the MHW which polices the industry to ensure that the strict regulations governing safety, efficacy and marketing are adhered to, and through its broader welfare policies it exercises strong influence over the entire medical environment.