【Kentaro Nakajima】The Impact of Military Technology Development on Innovation: Evidence from Prewar and Wartime Japanese Secret Patents
▶Category： Working Paper(outside IIR) ▶Author：Kotani, Atsuki：Kentaro Nakajima：Tetsuji Okazaki：Yukiko U. Saito ▶Institution：RIETI Discussion Paper Series ▶Number：25-E-093 ▶Release Date：2025/09/01 ▶Article Title：The Impact of Military Technology Development on Innovation: Evidence from Prewar and Wartime Japanese Secret Patents ▶Abstract：Innovations in military technology potentially drive significant societal transformations through applications to civilian use. This study aims to quantitatively measure the impact of military technology development on civilian innovation activities using prewar and wartime Japanese patent data from 1916 to 1945. By exploiting Japan’s secret patent system, which classified particularly critical military-related technologies not disclosed to the public, we identify important technological developments. The result shows that the filing of secret patents led to a significant…