Book excerpt: In the early 1980s, biotechnology caused worldwide excitement as a high technology with almost unlimited potential in science, medicine, and industry. It not only allowed the manufacture of traditional products more quickly and inexpensively, but also offered the possibility of synthesizing valuable materials anew. All this made it very attractive to Japanese policymakers, who ‘targeted’ it as a high priority area for economic growth. Originally published in 1989, Biotechnology in Japan is the first published in English to analyse the Japanese effort to promote the new biotechnology industries. The author examines the strategies used for developing biotechnology in Japan and looks at the active role of government in a field in which the Japanese rapidly became the world leaders. Focusing on the making and implementation of biotechnology policy, he considers the relationship between the public and the private sector, and makes use of different political constructs to analyse Japan’s complex and unique balance between competitive market forces and collective interest.