Some policies on promoting R&D activities of Japanese SMEs in the “two lost decades”

Abstract

“Asset Price Bubble” burst in 1991 was the beginning of a more-than-two decade period of economic recession in Japan, often called the “Two Lost Decades”. During the two lost decades, due to the limitations in resources, Japanese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector faced huge difficulties and experienced a serious decline in quantity. To help SMEs overcome the difficulties, Japan developed many important policies and put them into implementation. This paper focuses on the policies which promoted research and development (R&D) activities of Japanese SMEs, thereby proposing some SME-policy recommendations in Vietnam.