The Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) are supposed to be an essential source of innovations since they provide technological bricks which are fundamental for a great spectrum of innovative products and services as low-carbon technologies, effective utilization of energy resources, advanced information technologies or biomedical services and products. The development and application of KETs are viewed as a necessary condition for the acceleration of the innovation cycles and the competitiveness of the European industries. The article presents basic information on KETs and a comparison of KETs between EU, USA and Japan from the point of publication activities, patents and the extent of the foreign trade of product and services based on KETs. Both EU and USA lag behind Japan in the fraction of research publications related to KETs in their particular national publication outputs though both USA and EU exhibit a robust growth in past five years and Japan publication output rather decreased in this period. The patent activities give a similar picture: Japan dominates in the growth throughout the past ten years and also in the share of patents applications related to the KETs. Also in the share of KETs related export EU is lagging behind its major competitors.