AKIRA IMAMURA Minister, Head of the Information Department of the Japanese Embassy in Russia Keywords: Japan, innovation, competitiveness, cooperation with Russia October 2010 The World Economic Forum * has published a report on international competitiveness. It analyzed the international competitiveness of 139 countries and economies of the world by various parameters. In the section "Innovation and Business Sophistication", Japan took the first place (see the table). Japan is being overtaken by Asian countries such as China and South Korea: its share in sales of smartphones and other types of information home appliances on the global market has fallen to 25% in recent years. But in the production of materials and raw materials from which components of these products are made, Japan has the lion's share - 66%1. From this, it can be observed that Japan is focusing its efforts on research and development in a number of strategically important areas. Table Ranking of countries by international competitiveness (139 countries, including Taiwan and Hong Kong) Overall rating Rating in the field of innovation and business sophistication 1. Switzerland 1. Japan 2. Sweden 2. Switzerland 3. Singapore 3. Sweden 4. USA 4. USA 5. Germany 5. Germany 6. Japan 6. Finland 7. Finland 7. Taiwan 8. The Netherlands 8. The Netherlands 9. Denmark 9. Denmark 10. Canada 10. Singapore Source: World Economic Forum. The Global Competitiveness Report 2010 - 2011, p. 16 - http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalCompetiti-venessReport_2010 - 11.pdf WHAT ARE THE PRIORITY AREAS FOR INNOVATION IN JAPAN? I would like to draw your attention to the latest concrete achievements in the following areas, where Japan is putting its efforts. - Energy saving and eco-technologies Japan uses its own resources to meet only 4% of its energy needs. Therefore, the "oil crises" of the 1970s also served as an impetus to increase the efficiency of energy use and save energy. ... Read more