WHEN it comes to being awarded patents, the Japanese are world champions. Japan has more than 1,200 patents per million people—more than twice as many as Switzerland, the next most prolific country (with 500 patents per million), and more than three times as many as third-ranking America (with 350 patents per million). Does that make Japan the most innovative country in the world? Difficult to say. But something rather exceptional is at work in Japan that encourages its scientists, engineers, workers and even housewives to seek fame and fortune by patenting their brainwaves.
談到專利，日本是世界第一。在日本每百萬人即擁有1200篇專利，超過第二名瑞士的二倍（每百萬人擁有500篇專利），並超過第三名美國的三倍（每百萬人擁有350篇利）。因為這樣造就了日本是世界上最具創新能力的國家嗎？很難說！但很特別的是日本的工作鼓勵科學家、工程師、勞工甚至是家庭主婦發揮腦力去追求名譽及財富。
There’s a problem, of course, with using patents as an index of national performance. Patents are awarded for something that is novel, useful and non-obvious. As such, they measure success in discovering or inventing new things. They do not measure innovation, nor the economic activity that ensues.
用專利作為國家performance很明顯的是有問題的。專利是用來awarded給新穎、實用及「不明顯」的事物。因此，它們是以發現或發明新事物來衡量專利的成功。它們並不是用來衡量創新和專利所引起的經濟活動。
In the grand scheme of things, inventions are the easy part. Turning inventions or discoveries into innovations—ie, products and processes that enrich our lives or improve our well-being—is a vastly more demanding business.
從許多方面來看（？），發明是較簡單的部份。將發明或發現轉化為創新，例如能豐富我們的生活或改善我們健康幸福的產品或process，則是較耗時間及精力的事。
Inventions and discoveries are made in the lab or on the kitchen table by a handful of individuals. By contrast, innovations absorb the energies and fortunes of large corporate teams and can take years to bring to fruition. An invention that cost $1,000 to conceive can easily cost $10m to turn into a successful innovation.
發明和發現是少數人在實驗室或廚房桌上所產生的。相反的，創新需要公司團隊的精力和金錢，而且耗時許久才能看到成果。一個花費$1,000來實現的發明往往需耗費$10m才能轉化為一項成功的創新。
Even so, with nothing better at hand, patents are often used as a proxy for innovation. And Japan’s high patenting performance says much about the country’s instincts for innovation. However, Japanese patents tell a mixed story. As noted in our “At a glance” feature on inventiveness, published on Economist.com on July 30th (see article), there’s a lot of multiple-counting in Japanese patent figures. The reasons are as much cultural as historical.
即使如此，目前還沒有比較好的評估法，所以專利仍常被用來當作評估創新的替代方法。日本的高度專利成效可說是來自於這個國家創新的本能。然而日本專利也告訴我們另一項事實。如同我們在另一篇文章所提到的，日本專利有許多「重覆計數」的篇數，而這主要是由於文化上而非歷史上。
Although Japan is not a particularly litigious society, Japanese courts are more preoccupied with the letter than the spirit of the law, and can be extraordinarily pernickety when cases do go to trial. Until recently, when Japan’s patent standards began to converge with American and European ones, that forced Japanese patent examiners to adopt a far more atomistic view of what constitutes a patentable invention. Thus, were a bicycle to be patented in Japan, it could not be defined simply as a human-powered, two-wheeled vehicle, but would have to be considered as a family of patents covering the frame, wheels, crank, pedals, handlebars and saddle.
雖然日本不是一個好訴訟的社會，但日本法院會專注在法條字句上而不是法律的精神，而且在案件進入法院之後會變得非常挑剔。直到最近，當日本專利標準開始要與美國和歐洲標準融合時，才迫使日本專利檢查員去採用較atomistic的觀點去看待構成一項可被專利化的發明。因此，當一個腳踏車在日本通過專利時，它不能只是定義為人力兩輪的交通工具，而是要視為包含了車架、輪子、踏板、操控桿和坐壂。
But even after discounting for the Japan Patent Office’s multiple-counting, Japan still patents way over its weight. What was not mentioned in “At a glance” was that the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) white paper it was based on (which, in the interest of full disclosure, your columnist had a hand in writing) handicapped Japan by discarding one-third of its patents from the start. And still it came out top. Also left unsaid—and most intriguing of all—was that Japan achieves its stellar performance with rather mediocre inputs.
但是即使在扣除日本專利局「重覆計數」的部份之後，日本仍然…？。在At a glace一文當中未提及的是EIU白皮書…。而仍然是專利數第一。另外，未提到且最有趣的是日本達到這種好成績是以相當「平庸」的數量。
The EIU study created four indices for each of the 82 countries examined. Apart from the innovation index based on patents granted, two further indices ranked each country’s direct drivers of innovation (national research effort, education standards, technical skills, broadband penetration, etc) as well as those indirect environmental factors considered conducive for innovation (such as rule of law, tax regime, economic stability, labour flexibility and patent protection). Finally, an aggregate enabling index was created from a 70/30 weighting of the direct and indirect drivers.
EIU這份研究報告替82個國家提出了四項指標來檢測。除了以專利通過數為基礎的創新指標之外，還有兩項指標來評比每一個國家的創新直接（國家研究、教樣標準、技術技能和寬頻普及率等）和間接驅動力（如法律地位、稅制、經濟穩定、勞動彈性化（？）和專利保護）。最後，aggregate enabling指標是取直接和間接驅動70/30的評權結果。
Despite having one of the best-educated workforces in the world, superb IT infrastructure, a well-oiled administration, good rule of law and protection of intellectual property, Japan ranks a lowly 14th in terms of its enablers for innovation. So, why does the country perform so well on the output side of the innovation equation, despite having such feeble drivers on the input side?
儘管有著世界上教育程度最高的勞工、出色的IT基礎建設、有效率的行政體系、良好的法律規範和智權的保障，但日本在enablers for innovation（？）儘排第14名。那麼，為什麼日本在內部如此無力的情況之下仍然在創新上有這麼好的表現呢？
No one really knows. You can make educated guesses. The concentration of talent in manufacturing. The pursuit of excellence. The ferocious rivalry between Japan’s large electronics firms. The lingering relic of the country’s post-war catch-up mentality. Fears of economic isolation given the expansion of the European Union and the emergence of the North American Free-Trade Area. Anxiety about a rapidly ageing society facing a formidable pensions and health-care crisis.
沒人知道！你可以作個合理的猜測。在製造上的專注天份、追求卓越、日本電子大廠之間的激烈競爭、戰後要急起直追的精神、擔心歐盟及北美自由貿易協定擴張所帶來的經濟孤立、對快速老齡化的社會所需面對的龐大老年津貼和健保危機所產生的焦慮。
All this may or may not play a part. But beyond the more obvious economic imperatives lie certain social factors that appear to be at work as well. In the early 1980s the Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living (HILL) in Tokyo sought to capture the spirit of the times by looking at Japanese society through a prism of hitonami—a national tendency of wanting to be like others.
以上或多或少都是原因。但在這些顯而易見的經濟要素之後還是有一些社會因素在起作用。1980年代初期，位於東京的HILL機構試圖藉由hitonami稜鏡（一種要和他人相同的國家傾向）來觀察日本社會以找尋當代的精神。
HILL argued that the old feudal habit of watching neighbours closely to see what behaviour the local war lord condoned or forbade had served modern society well. In particular, it helped explain why Japanese consumers had traditionally been quick to embrace new products. In certain ways, the customers were being even more innovative than the suppliers.
HILL 主張古代封建時人們會仔細觀察鄰居來理解諸候所好惡的行為，這習慣在現今社會中也同樣適用。具體的說，這解釋了為何日本消費者在傳統上可以很快的接受新產品。在某方面來說，消費者甚至比廠商還更具創新精神。
Back in Japan for his biannual pilgrimage（？）, your columnist is beginning to feel that this tendency may explain much of the country’s natural talent for innovation. Certainly, coming up with bright ideas for future products involves a lot of informal and subjective “tacit” knowledge as well as documented “explicit” know-how.
回到日本的？，作者開始感覺這種傾向可以解釋大部份這個國家的創新天份。當然，要為未來的產品發想出好的點子是需要很多的非正式且主觀內省的內隱知識和書面化的外顯技術。
The accumulation and sharing of this tacit understanding (which is largely impossible to record) is what makes Japan tick. You only have to go into a Japanese pub in the evening to hear animated businessmen carrying on their after-hours office discussions. Perhaps it is the birru, jizake and shochu that are the real tonics for innovation.
內隱知識的累積和分享正是…。你只需要在晚上走進一間日本pub，聽聽那些充滿生氣的生意人在下班時所討論的辦公室話題。birru, jizake（地酒）, shochu（燒酒），也許這就是創新的振奮劑！
