Towards the Science and Technology Policy in Japan
Based on the National Strategy

Etsuhiko Shoyama Vice Chairmen of the Board of Councillors, Keidanren President, Hitachi, Ltd.

The impact of science and technology on economic growth has been growing, while the global economy prevails into the 21^st century. It creates the new industries through setting up many ventures on the one hand, it forces the old industries out of the market through the price mechanism on the other. Such reorganization of the world industry structure has been accelerated on the global basis. It becomes decisively important for a national economy to take what kind of a policy on science and technology. In particular, the strategic policy on science and technology is more needed or expected than ever for the Japanese economy, which should maintain the long-term growth while it should restore budget imbalances.

The active role of Council on Science and Technology Policy has been paid a lot of attention, after it was set up in the Cabinet at the beginning of this year and the second Science and Technology Basic Plan was started last April. The priority research areas were decided as life science, information technology, environment technology, and nanotechnology/material. The next issue, namely how to reinforce the policy, has just started to be discussed. Among them, the focal issues are a reform of the university towards strengthening international competitiveness and a strengthening corporation among industry, academia and government based on that reform. The corporation among these communities has been long discussed, but not been effective. We would not expect to strengthen the international competitiveness without succeeding in it.

Last August the industrial technology policy committee of Japan Federation of Economic Organization newly set up a subcommittee on corporation among industry, academia and government as well as that on information and communication technology. It is to discuss the strategy on the corporation among the three communities, covering from basic research, practical research, and venturing. For example, it is urgently important to realize such environment as researchers in the business come and work together with researchers in universities at the well-equipped facilities of the national laboratories and make world-leading research, just like in the United States. When you look at the situation in Europe and the United States, the coordinated research among the three communities based on the national strategy has become one of the most important strategy on science and technology policy. I hope that the Council of Science and Technology Policy will show a strong leadership towards the science and technology policy based on the national strategy.