Bridging the Technology Gap: Historical Perspectives on Modern Asia

What made it possible for Asian countries to have such a turn-around in technology? A body of literature seeks to answer this question by examining cultural aspects (e.g., Asian values), innovation systems (e.g., government agencies and policies), geopolitical situations (e.g., the Cold War context), or charismatic leadership in business and policymaking areas (e.g., the founders of Sony and Samsung). Yet no one has taken a serious look into the nature of the technology gap per se. What is the technology gap? What exactly do we mean by “bridging” this gap? Is there a universal yardstick to measure and rank the national capacity for technological productivity? I think that the term ‘gap’ is a useful yet problematic metaphor, for a gap connotes a space or distance between two objects. Is the technology gap something that can be filled with more stuff or be connected with a bridge?

Contents

Preface Youngsoo Bae i 
Introduction Buhm Soon Park ix 

Chapter 1 
Bridging the Technology Gap in Japan: Technology, Culture and Identity in the Late 19th to the 21st Century 
Morris Low 1 

Chapter 2 
Accelerating Transformation: High Technology, Nationalism, and Developmental Authoritarianism in Indonesia, 1966-1998 Sulfikar Amir 33 

Chapter 3 
Development in Science and Technology of South Korea During the Cold War: Focusing on the US Policy toward South Korea 
Tae Gyun Park 63 

Chapter 4 
The Historical Development of Technological Capabilities in Korean Steel Industry: The Case of Posco 
Sungsoo Song 95 

Chapter 5 
Technology Gap, Research Institutes, and the Contract Research System: The Role of Government-Funded Research Institutes in Korea Manyong Moon 125 

Chapter 6 
Technonationalism, Technology Gaps, and the Nuclear Bureaucracy in Korea, 1955-1973 
Buhm Soon Park 153 

Chapter 7 
The “Koreanization” of Nuclear Power Technology: The Case of a Joint Design 
Byung-Koo Kim 199 

Index 221 
About Authors 224