While Western companies are castigated for skimping on research and development expenditure, in Japan, some of the high-tech companies are beginning to face criticism that they are spending too much: Hitachi Ltd is singled out for its intention to spend 10.7% of turnover on research and development this fiscal, up from 9.9% last year; others planning big increases in spending include Toshiba Corp, 8.1% of sales, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, 7.6% and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, 6.2%; key criticism is that companies are not adequately auditing their expenditure to see that they are getting value for money – but those percentages would bring a wry smile in Sunnyvale – Amdahl Corp reckons it has to spend between 16% and 20% of turnover to keep itself competitive with its arch-rival, IBM.
