616 



Japanese Perceptions 



The Japanese appear to have a firmer and more consistent government 

 energy policy than the United States, stemming from their lack of 

 natural resources. They intend to be successful with fission breeder 

 reactors and eventually with fusion. Compared with the United States 

 and the EC, Japan seems to have more direct industrial participation 

 in fusion programs. As for the Japanese utilities, they are more 

 centralizea, appear to be more financially sound than in the United 

 States, and are somewhat more involved in the fusion program. 



Japanese industry is actively involved as supplier of experimental 

 equipment (Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, 1983). The industry has 

 exhibited interest in acquiring and protecting fusion technology 

 "know-how." Industry representatives of the Japan Atomic Industrial 

 Forum expressed a generally negative attitude on international 

 cooperation, which seemed to be motivated primarily by their desire to 

 establish industrial leadership. They did not appear concerned that 

 financial constraints might reduce the fusion program or stretch out 

 the period over which it is carried out. They also indicated that 

 Japan should not rely on any other country for the development for any 

 technology that is critical. One form of cooperation proposed by the 

 Japanese industrialists was to let Japanese vendors supply components 

 to the U.S. fusion effort, provided that similar technology promised 

 to be useful to the Japanese program as it progressed. 



A generally positive attitude about international cooperation was 

 expressed by government ministry officials, by fusion program leaders, 

 and by influential advisors. The incentive seemed in all cases to be 

 concern about current or future Japanese financial constraints. If 

 fusion were near the application stage, there might not be any 

 Japanese interest in international cooperation. However, with the 

 commercial application of fusion decades away and total development 

 costs running into tens of billions of dollars, it is difficult for 

 anyone to be against international cooperation, especially since 

 Japanese funding seems to have leveled off just at is has in the 

 United states. Program administrators see international cooperation 

 as a means of conserving scarce resources. Scientists see cooperation 

 as a means of expanding or accelerating the fusion program. All 

 groups except the industrial one endorsed international cooperation in 

 principle as desirable or necessary for technical progress, risk 

 sharing, and cost sharing. 



It was a Japanese view that international cooperation must not 

 impair national programs, -nierefore, cooperative efforts will have to 

 be supplementary to the main core of these programs or else, if more 

 extensive, will have to fit well with the national program content. 

 In the case of collaboration on a major project the parties should 

 start with joint formulation of the objectives, schedules, design 

 features, and so forth. This approach would apply when the 

 collaborating partners had approximately equal shares in the venture. 



