Traditionally, an entrepreneurial spirit has not been seen as something of much value in Japan. However, the Japanese government has undertaken a variety of short-term and long-term measures to revitalize the Japanese economy through creating new business opportunities and employment. Mr. Yoda's discussion will touch on the SBIR, the Japanese version of the Bayh-Dole Act, the revision of the Bankruptcy Act, the revision of the standard for accounting as well as the revision of patent law for research institutes at national universities. To further promote the development of new enterprises and support for their growth, tax provisions, such as the "Angel Tax", have been revised and the number of incubators available for new entrepreneurs to use are also subject to increase. Through the revision of patent law, the relationship between university research institutions and private businesses in Japan will become a key factor in Japan's revitalization. Expected results from these government strategies as well as some aspects of these revisions that need to be further considered will be discussed by Mr. Yoda along with his analysis of the potential role of the Japanese government in facilitating entrepreneurial links between Japan and Silicon Valley. Mr. Yoda serves as Chief Executive Director of the Japan External Trade Organization's (JETRO) San Francisco office, where he as served since 1997 as a liaison between the Japanese and the US business communities. His primary responsibility is implementing Japanese trade promotion programs and assisting US companies looking to enter the Japanese market. Previous to his assignment at JETRO San Francisco, Mr. Yoda spent 25 years working for the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and other governmental organizations. Mr. Yoda has also served as Commercial and Economic Councilor for the Japanese Embassy in Ottawa, Canada (1991-94). Mr. Yoda received a BA degree in Law from Kyoto University. He frequently takes part in directing JETRO's trade promotion activities as well as promoting the Japanese market to U.S. business and community leaders.

Why do some regions seem more innovative then other regions? What is the secret of successful regions? Based on research in several innovative regions, Collaborative Economics has identified some of the factors that shape success. Doug Henton, President of Collaborative Economics based in Palo Alto will present results from the 2000 Index of Silicon Valley and the results of a recent study on Innovative Regions which analyzes trends in several American regions including Austin, Route 128, Northern Virginia, San Diego as well as Silicon Valley. Doug founded Collaborative Economics in July 1993 after a decade as assistant director of SRI International's Center for Economic Competitiveness. At SRI, Doug directed local strategy projects in diverse regions, including Tampa, Florida; Southern California; and Austin, Texas. He led major state-level strategy development projects in Arizona, Florida, and California, and provided consulting assistance to the President's Commission on Industrial Competitiveness, the Western Governors Association, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Appalachian Regional Commission. Internationally, Doug directed major projects on the economic future of Hong Kong, the technopolis strategy in Japan, and regional development in China. Doug holds a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from Yale University and a master of public policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Tatsuo Yamada is one of Japan's foremost experts on China's modern political history and Sino-Japanese Relations. He has written numerous articles and edited important volumes on the Republican Period, including works on the internal politics and ideology of the Nationalist Party and the relationship between the Nationalists and the Communists. He is editor of the book 150 Years of Sino-Japanese Relations, has written on Japanese studies on modern Chinese history, and on current political developments in the PRC. Professor of Political Science at Keio University since 1977, he has served as Director of the Center for Area Studies and as Dean of the Faculty of Law at Keio.

The great economist, Alfred Marshall, said of industrial districts: "The mysteries of the trade...are as it were in the air...." This seminar reports on a project that addresses the "mysteries" of the Valley (at least to many of the people who want to replicate it). Key topics to be discussed are a habitat that is unmatched in its ability to create new firms and take ideas to market rapidly, the edge provided by communities of practice, the high quality and highly mobile labor force, the various roles of government in the rise of the Valley, and how changes in technology and markets have favored it. Henry S. Rowen is Director of the Asia/Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Edward B. Rust professor emeritus at the University's Graduate School of Business. From 1989 to 1991, Rowen was the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the U.S. Department of Defense. He was also chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 1981 to 1983, served as president of the RAND Corporation from 1968 to 1972 and was assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of the budget from 1965 to 1966. He recently was the editor of Behind East Asian Growth: The Political and Social Foundations of Prosperity, published by Routledge Press, 1998. At the present time, he is co-editing a book on how the Silicon Valley system of innovation and entrepreneurship works. The next phase of this project will examine high technology centers in Asia.

Between four and five thousand years ago, elephants were found in China as far north as the location of present-day Beijing. Today, wild elephants are confined to a few protected enclaves along the southwest border. To some degree, this retreat was due to a long-term decrease in the mean annual temperature, but the most important cause was the destruction of habitat by Chinese-style agricultural development. Mark Elvin uses the pattern of retreat of the elephants as a means of defining to a first degree of approximation the complementary pattern of the spread of forest clearance for farming in China across space and time, and to discuss the economic and other causes for the historical deforestation. Mark Elvin is Research Professor of Chinese History at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU, and Emeritus Fellow of St. Anthony's College, Oxford. He is author of The Pattern of the Chinese Past (1973), Another History: Essays on China from a European Perspective (1996), and Changing Stories in the Chinese World (1997, among other works. Elvin was educated at Cambridge University and Harvard.

When Taiwan's government launched Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park Project in 1979, the objectives were three fold: to revitalize the country's economic growth, to establish its indigenous high-tech base, and to slow down the (then) serious brain drain problem. After extensive consultations, study tours, and careful evaluation, a strategy was adopted to emulate Silicon Valley. The key ingredients of the strategy were to establish favorable investment and living environments for high tech entrepreneurs, to lure back some expatriate brain power, and to train more science and engineering graduates. The initial plan involved a 10-year, $500 million government fund to develop a nearly 600 hectare science park in Hsinchu, where two prestigious universities and a government funded research institution already were located. The Taiwanese government established a Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park Administration in 1979 to execute this plan. What has happened during the past 20 years? The current status of the Hsinchu Park will be presented to substantiate the original plan and strategy. Dr. Irving T. Ho currently serves as Chairman of the Board of EiC Corp. His distinguished career includes serving as the first Director General of the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, President and CEO of International Integrated System, Inc., Vice Chairman of Taiwan's National Science Council, and senior manager and award winning researcher at IBM's East Fishkill Laboratory. Holder of 34 US patents, Dr. Ho received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Prior to joining RAND in 1989, Dr. Swaine was a consultant in the business sector, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley, and a research associate at Harvard University. Dr. Swaine holds a Ph.D. and Masters in Political Science from Harvard University and a Bachelor's degree from George Washington University. He specializes in Chinese domestic politics and foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian international relations.

Pieter P. Bottelier recently completed a 28-year tenure at the World Bank. He served in various senior managerial and advisory capacities for programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America. His most recent positions were, until December l998, Senior Advisor to the Vice President, East Asia and Pacific Region, and Chief of the World Bank's Resident Mission in Beijing (1993-97). He now teaches at the School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University, and is associated with the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington DC. He is the author of many articles on China. He studied economics and banking at the University of Amsterdam and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The role of location is gaining attention as a contributor to firm and industry competitiveness. A number of researchers have linked innovation and productivity to the geographic clustering of firms. While a variety of industry clusters in the United States and abroad have been studied, seldom have they been considered within the context of global competition. Global competition complicates the location decision. Drawing on extensive evidence from the hard disk drive industry, including information on the complete population of firms since the industry's inception, this presentation offers a framework for understanding the dynamics of industry location in international competition. David McKendrick is Research Director of the Information Storage Industry Center at the University of California, San Diego. His current research focuses on the role of location in competitive advantage, the effects of geographic dispersion on innovation and learning in multinational corporations, and the evolution of international competition. Prior to joining UCSD, he taught in the business schools at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Dallas. He received his Ph.D. in business from the University of California, Berkeley.

There are several technology parks in India funded by both the state and the private sector. They have been widely criticized for offering either a poor habitat for technology development or for being too expensive. Mr. Vaghul heads India's largest development bank, ICICI. ICICI has newly promoted Knowledge Park in Hyderabad to uniquely focus on business R & D. Mr. Vaghul will explain the rationale for and development of Knowledge Park in the context of India's technology development. Narayanan Vaghul, a distinguished financier and currently a visiting professor at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, is chairman of ICICI Limited. Mr. Vaghul has had a long, distinguished career as a banker. After qualifying as a B.Com. and Chartered Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers, he started his career in 1957 with the State Bank of India. In 1974 he left SBI (as Chief Officer, personnel) to join the National Institute of Bank Management where he soon rose to the Chief Executive position of Director. Thereafter, he worked with two of the largest Indian commercial banks, Central Bank of India as Executive Director (1978-1981) and Bank of India as Chairman & Managing Director (1981-1984). From 1985 to date Mr. Vaghul has been Chairman of ICICI Limited. Mr. Vaghul's pioneering vision and stellar contribution to Indian industry was acknowledged when Business India, a leading Indian business magazine, selected him as Businessman of the Year (1992).