The Research and Development Subcommittee of the Industrial Science Technology Policy Committee, the Industrial Structure Council (Chair: Kazuhito Hashimoto, professor at the School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo) has discussed the establishment of a new national project system. The results have been released as a proposal.

The adversity Japan has been facing since the Great East Japan Earthquake is much severer than the one it underwent during the oil crises. To revive Japan, the government needs to seek dream-inspiring, transformative technological innovation that is not an extension of conventional technologies.

The Research and Development Subcommittee of the Industrial Science Technology Policy Committee, the Industrial Structure Council, has discussed the establishment of a national project system that helps the government identify the fields which should be paved through R&D in order to prioritize R&D investments, and that incorporates a new scheme for effectively and efficiently using the limited budget. The results have been compiled into a proposal.

• The government should identify target technologies (“technologies to address environmental and energy constraints” and “technologies to address an aging population and declining birthrate”) and focus on “transformative technologies” that Japan excels in.
• The government should introduce a new scheme based on lessons learned from past national projects.

  - Government-wide decision on the projects to implement (period, total budget, target time-to-market, etc.) and who to implement them

  - Ensured commercial application of the outcomes of total project through optimal management (e.g., centralized management of outcomes by an “alliance of major players”)

• “A New National Project System”: proposal by the Research and Development Subcommittee, Industrial Science Technology Policy Committee, Industrial Structure Council (PDF:317KB) (in Japanese)

August 15, 2011

Research and Development Division, Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau