Unjustifiable accusation

Japan has forgotten how it got to be what it is today.

Japan in the Meiji period (1868-1912) experienced the most remarkable social transformation in modern history, from a feudal society to the beginnings of the Japan we know today.

In less than half a century, the Japanese adopted from Western nations a phenomenally wide range of new institutions, manufacturing methods and communication technologies in a successful effort to convert their country into a modern nation.

Much of the strength of Japan's economy can be attributed to Japanese companies' skills at imitating - and improving - all sorts of products.

Japan was a driver for the Asian economy and technology before its economy fell into recession in 2008.

It is easy to understand the bitterness it must be feeling now that it is lagging behind other countries, especially its neighbors, in fields where it used to be a leader.

The accusation by Tadaharu Ohashi, chairman of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, last week, is a case in point. He accused China of intellectual property rights violations when the country submitted applications for international patents for its high-speed rail technology.

When China decided to build a high-speed rail link between Beijing and Shanghai in 2006, there was a fierce bidding war among Japanese, German and French companies.

But the Chinese government believed in the nation's own technology. The Chinese technology, as the Ministry of Railways has said, is re-innovation on the basis of assimilating the advanced technologies of foreign countries.

In his book Copycats, Oded Shenkar, a management professor at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, argues that in business imitation can be at least as important as innovation.

Jared Diamond, the academic and author of such books as Guns, Germs and Steel, has pointed out that human development would not have been possible without imitation.

But it is not enough to just copy. Taking it further is the key. What sets the successes apart is the ability to add innovation to the imitation.

Known for its advanced technology, Japan is a nation China has a lot to learn from. In 1978, when China kicked off its reform and opening up, foreign high-speed trains were reaching speeds of 300 kilometers per hour, while the average speed of passenger trains in China was only 43 km/h.

China has caught up quickly. It's now an advanced technology competitor.

Technological progress rarely comes from a "eureka moment", instead it is a process of improving on what went before, as even a cursory glance at the history of railways shows.