China has overtaken the U.S. and other European countries as the world's leading economy. Now, it has driven its motivation toward becoming the leader in science and technology. Experts from all over the world have observed and pointed out that there has been a continuous decline in the amount and levels of research for science and technology in Japan, and this may be the reason why China is now in the lead of the race.
According to a report from Nikkei Asia, scientists from Japan are pressured by manufacturing needs to produce immediate outputs and results. This fact has led them away from long-term research and oriented their focus in other "more tangible" research studies. Furthermore, as funding for research become more difficult to find, Japanese scientists may find it harder to pursue long-term studies that promise no optimistic results.
Issues in Science and Technology has reported that China has been on a very aggressive drive toward technological innovation. With how they originally flaunt costs for production such as cheap land resources, labor, and many more, they are now refocusing their goals toward improving their innovative capabilities rather than just concentrating on their production abilities.
China will not just focus on technology, software production, and electric components. They will also put their efforts on energy production, nuclear power plants, and gas fields. They are also planning to tap medical science in the development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), treatment of AIDS, and even development of drugs. More importantly, it has been quite a year for China and their space exploration technology.
Just in statistics alone, it proves that China may be the new leader as the latest technology in supercomputers have been produced by Chinese computer scientists and engineers. This battle to win the science crown has been ongoing for years between Japan and China, and it seems that the latter will win in the years to come. Japan remains competitive, but with new policies in China's wings, it will be a close battle.