Government adopts new intellectual property program to enhance competitiveness

Japan Times

3 days ago

The government adopted a new intellectual property promotion program at a meeting of a relevant council on Tuesday, with an aim to boost the country's presence in the international arena.
The 2025 version is designed to enhance Japan's international competitiveness in the field of intellectual property through utilizing advanced digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, and attracting foreign talent.
"Intellectual property is an important revenue source for Japan and plays a critical role in bolstering Japanese companies' competitiveness," Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who heads the intellectual property strategy headquarters, said at the meeting. "To create competitive intellectual properties, we will thoroughly reinforce AI utilization."
The government aims to raise the country's ranking in the World Intellectual Property Organization's annual Global Innovation Index to fourth or higher by 2035. Japan was 13th in the 2024 rankings, while Switzerland ranked first, followed by Sweden and the United States.
Japan was at its highest on the rankings in 2007, at fourth place.
Under the new program, the government will create an environment to draw top-level researchers in AI and other fields from abroad. It will also support intellectual property-related human resources development for startups and improve productivity in the intellectual property field using AI. The measures are aimed at boosting scores on evaluation criteria for which Japan is currently poorly rated, such as the amount of foreign investment.
The program also includes a policy to promote the overseas expansion of domestic industries related to "Cool Japan" soft power, including anime in which Japan has strength. It calls for accelerating anime tourism, or travel to real-life locations that appear in anime. The government hopes to expand the economic impact of related industries to ¥50 trillion ($347 billion) by 2033.
The program said that a conclusion needs to be swiftly reached on various issues regarding defining inventors, amid controversy over whether AI developers should be recognized as the creators of related inventions. It also sought a study on revising legislation, including the design law, to strengthen protecting designs in the "metaverse" virtual world.
At the headquarters meeting, the government also adopted a fresh strategy aimed at having Japanese product standards adopted around the world.
The first revision to the strategy in 19 years includes establishing a new public-private command center and intensive support in eight fields, including digital and AI technology and disaster management.