Fact or myth? Now we know, it's a myth

In "British Inventiveness -- Fact or Myth?", posted on Monday 27 September, tytoc collie reported the content of a Chartered Institute of Patent Attorney press release which referred to a study by the Japanese Trade & Industry Ministry in the 1980s which apparently concluded that 54 per cent of the world's most important inventions were British. Said this weblog:

"tytoc collie has never seen the MITI report and wonders whether an English version of it exists. He has however heard this figure, sometimes inflated to anything up to 75%, cited as evidence that the Japanese have simply stolen and successfully commercialised vast swathes of British innovation -- a proposition which the Kat feels cannot be supported by evidence".

The Kat has now just received an email from the admirable Peter Prowse, who handles the CIPA press releases. Writes Peter:

"I read your piece commenting on CIPA's press release quoting the 'MITI report'. I first saw this claim reported in several normally reputable publications (eg 'The Engineer') way back in the early 1990s. I've been referring to it - off and on - ever since.

Your comments - and a request from Lawrence Smith-Higgins at the IPO to direct him towards the original report - led me to do some digging.  I have now unearthed an article by David Budworth, published in the New Scientist on 10 April 1986, in which he traces how the myth arose.

According to Budworth, there was a report from the Science and Technology Agency of Japan, a summary of which was published (in English) in 1981 by Japan's Foreign Press Centre. The Japanese report was itself based on a survey conducted for the National Science Foundation in the USA. The erroneous references to a 'MITI' report appear to have been introduced by the Sunday Times in 1985, reporting on a Bow Group Memorandum that drew on the 1981 Japan Foreign Press Centre story.

So there we have it. There was a survey. It showed that Britain was quite good at 'radical innovations'; the survey was reported by the Japanese Science and Technology Agency, picked up by the Bow Group and then misreported in the Sunday Times."

tytoc collie congratulates Peter on his detective work, and for his determination to establish the truth.

More British myths here and here