Earlier this month, the Statistics Bureau, part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, released the results of 2016’s “Survey of Research and Development” in Japan. The largest data sets regarding R&D personnel, capital, sales and R&D expenditure was collected for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016. The survey covers business enterprises; nonprofit institutions and public organizations, including corporations and research institutions; and universities and colleges, including university and facility faculties, junior college organizations, technical colleges, university-associated research institutions, inter-university research institutes, corporations and the National Institute of Technology. The FY16 survey covered approximately 13,500 business enterprises, 1,100 nonprofit institutions and public organizations, and 3,700 universities and colleges, for an approximate total of 18,300 respondents. An estimated 82% of business enterprises, 99% of nonprofit institutions and public organizations, and 100% of universities and colleges submitted responses.

For the first time in three years, in FY15, Japanese total R&D expenditures decreased 0.2% to JPY 18.94 trillion ($160.9 billion = JPY = 117.69 = $1). As a percentage of GDP, R&D spending declined 10 percentage points to 3.6%. The total number of research personnel decreased 2.3% to 847,100.

For business enterprises, R&D expenditure increased 0.7% to JPY 13,686 billion ($116.3 million), the only sector to show an increase. R&D spending for universities and colleges decreased 1.4% to JPY 3,644 billion ($31.0 million), while expenditures for nonprofit institutions and public organizations decreased the most to JPY 1,609 billion ($13.7 million), a 4.7% drop.

By industries in the business enterprises sector, transportation equipment had the largest increase of 3.8% to JPY 2.95 trillion ($25.1 billion) and made up 22% of all business enterprises industries’ spending. Medicines represented 11% of business enterprises’ R&D expenditure, while scientific development and research institutes, and chemical and allied products both made up 6%.

Data regarding the technology balance of payments by business enterprises indicated that technology exports increased 6.4% to JPY 3.35 trillion ($28.5 billion), its highest figure ever, with receipts from technology imports increasing 7.9% to JPY 3.95 trillion ($33.6 billion) and payments from technology imports rising 17.5% to JPY 603 billion ($5.1 billion).

Source: Statistics Japan