American inventors gave the world the transistor, the vacuum tube, the phonograph and the microchip, innovations that helped establish the United States as the world`s technology leader for most of the 20th Century.
Today, Japanese companies produce more radios and stereos than the U.S., they have refined American manufacturing methods to the point of perfection, and they are gaining steadily in the semiconductor and computer industry.
Slowly, what once was known as ``American know-how`` has turned into
``America what now?`` The country that virtually coined the word competition is now relearning how to compete.
``We`ve been licked in the basic industries,`` said Ralph Thomson, senior vice president of the American Electronics Association. ``What`s particularly nerve-racking is that we could be licked in electronics, where we`ve always been on the leading edge.``
The association is a trade group whose 2,700 member companies account for 63 percent of U.S. electronics industry sales.
In 1984, for the first time, the U.S. imported $2.4 billion more in electronics products than it exported. Only three years ago, the U.S. enjoyed a $6.1 billion surplus of electronics exports over imports.
American industry has seen the phrase ``Made in America`` all but disappear from televisions, home appliances and dozens of other consumer products that were made possible by American inventions such as the transistor.
Robert Frosch, vice president of research for General Motors and former deputy director of the Defense Department`s Advanced Research Projects Agency, said: ``We have to catch up with the use of technologies we have been inventing. Even in areas where we still command a lead, Japan has shown talent for laundering our own technology and sending it back to us.
``We used to be in a commanding position. We didn`t take extraordinary methods to stay that way.``
During the last five years, the American manufacturing market share fell 5 percent in the U.S. and 25 percent in world markets, while West Germany and Japan advanced in both sectors.
America still is considered the home of innovation. But Japanese companies dominate the world market in 64-kilobyte random access memory chips, the state-of-the-art components that enable computers to pack more memory and computing power into smaller packages.
Scientists warn that Japanese companies are gaining in emerging technologies such as fiber optics, high-speed communications components and advanced materials.
They are substantially ahead in robotics and computer-aided manufacturing.
There is grave concern that Japan will be the first to develop the next generation of supercomputer, the vehicle that will make possible artificial intelligence, the most promising computer technology of the future.
Even in software development, an area in which the U.S. has been regarded as the unchallenged leader, the Japanese are making spectacular progress, says Joe Mullins, director of the systems engineering center at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey.
``We`re most definitely looking over our shoulder,`` Mullins said.
``Technology is tied to every aspect of modern industrial society. Obviously, every country is trying to do it.``
Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and other Pacific Basin countries are developing a strong base in technology.
The European Common Market has established a five-year, $1.3 billion venture to provide the foundation for European micro-electronics research in the 1990s. Great Britain has a $300 million program for information science.
In mature industries such as copper mining and steel, other countries have taken advantage of America`s wide-open market. Aided by their
governments, Brazil, Argentina and developing nations along the Pacific Basin are building sophisticated steel mills that can turn out steel more efficiently and cheaply than the older American mills.
Particularly troublesome, businessmen say, is America`s inability to transform new ideas into high-quality products manufactured quickly and efficiently.
Several aspects of the problem are well-documented:
-- The federal deficit has contributed to high interest rates, making investment capital for new production materials more expensive here than in other countries.
-- Responsible for satisfying stockholders with quarterly profits, American industrialists are constrained from spending expansively for long-term research and development efforts.
-- The Japanese equity markets allow companies to take a longer-term view and to invest heavily in the newest manufacturing tools to increase quality and productivity.
The U.S. has no government-coordinated industrial policy to push the development of technologies and products needed to compete internationally.
By contrast, Japan`s government-run Ministry for International Trade and Industry targets areas of technological importance and coordinates industry`s research and development efforts. The ministry will spend $92 million to back the leading Japanese computer makers, Fujitsu, Hitachi and NEC, in their efforts to develop supercomputers.
Although the U.S. government provides less direct assistance, it does acknowledge its role as a prime sponsor of basic research within universities and government agencies.
A 14 percent increase has been proposed for federal research and development spending in 1985.