Book written by 1996 Abe Fellow Robert Kneller based on his project “Technology Transfer in Japan and the US: Different Paths to Scientific and Economic Progress.”

In Bridging Islands, SSRC-Abe Fellow Robert Kneller argues that without vibrant new high technology companies, Japanese industry will decline inexorably. The innovative strength of the world’s two largest economies, the United States and Japan, are based on two different forms of industrial and social organization. For the United States, venture companies play a key role in technical and economic progress, while in Japan they have only a minor role. At the same time, if the favorable yet delicate environment in America is undermined, America will face collapse of its innovative and economic strength.