Natural Resources, 2013, 4, 134-141 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/nr.2013.41A017 Published Online March 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/nr) Scientific Catch-Up in Asian Economies: A Case Study for Solar Cell Ichiro Sakata 1,2 , Hajime Sasaki 2 1 Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; 2 Policy Alternatives Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Email: isakata@ipr-ctr.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp, sasaki@pp.u-tokyo.ac.jp Received January 14 th , 2013; revised February 14 th , 2013; accepted February 22 nd , 2013 ABSTRACT A significant structural change in the pattern of economic development in Asian economies has been observed in recent years. We have seen many cases in which the Asian economies became the center of the world-wide production in an extremely short period of time after a new product entered the market. Also in the science, the number of papers written by Asian researchers has been increasing dramatically. In this situation, the existing studies cannot sufficiently explain the driving force and the mechanism of catch-up or economic growth. Therefore, it is now required to model this new type of economic development. In this paper we analyzed their scientific catch-up status using scientific papers on solar cells to clarify the structural change. After mid 1990s, knowledge creation has been accelerated in the field of solar cell. Now more than three thousand papers are published annually. We found as a result that the catch-up process in Asian economies had progressed rapidly, that some economies had a larger share of scientific papers in the frontier field of advanced science than in the matured fields, and that the strategy largely changed from area to area. A “parallel-run- ning-type growth model” has thus been emerging in Asia. Responding to the significant changes in development model, we have to re-design the framework of economic cooperation. There is a need for further horizontal collaboration among major Asian economies and developed economies. We also showed that bibliometrics is an effective method for presuming a detailed national strategy that is not known to the outside. Keywords: Catch-Up; Growth Model; Bibliometrics 1. Introduction In fields such as development economics, political sci- ence, and innovation research, many studies have been conducted on the process in which the developing econo- mies catch up with the advanced economies and on the convergence of the disparity. In particular, East Asia has been the central target of the researches [1-9]. They can be classified according to the analysis targets: the studies on the production capabilities, those on the innovation capabilities, and those on the fundamentals and policies that affect these capabilities. Most of the studies use models in which the developing economies catch up with the advanced economies and gradually progress in the same development process as did the advanced econo- mies A typical model is the flying goose pattern of in- dustrialization [10,11]. Also, most of the papers focusing on the innovation capabilities are studies on the transfer or development of the industrial technologies, conducted on the basis of patent data. In contrast, there are few re- searches on the catch-up processes in the science. In the 21st century, however, we have seen many cases in which the developing economies became the center of the world-wide production in an extremely short period of time after a new product entered the market, such as LCD TVs, solar cells, and cellular phones. Also in the science, the number of papers written by Chinese or In- dians has been increasing dramatically and the structure of the geographical distribution of scientific knowledge is significantly changing [12]. In this situation, the exist- ing studies cannot sufficiently explain the driving force and the mechanism of catch-up or economic growth. Therefore, it is now required to model this new type of economic development. This paper aims to focus on the catch-up processes in the science and clarify the current situation. We will also discuss the differences among the economies and the causes for the differences. We selected solar cell as a subject to analysis. Sus- tainable and renewable energies have been widely ac- cepted as a key concept for our common future [13]. A solar cell or photovoltaic cell, which is a device that converts solar energy into electricity via the photovoltaic effect, represents a promising research front for our fu- ture sustainable ecosystem. The solar cell systems can be Copyright © 2013 SciRes. NR