Director General's Message
National Institute of Science and Technology Policy
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Greeting
I was appointed to the post of 16th Director General of the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP) on July 11, 2008.
Establishment of a so-called "science and technology based country" by itself is vital for Japan to achieve further economic development and to make a contribution to solving a variety of international problems such as global environment issues.
NISTEP was established on July 1, 1988 as the core research institute for studying basic issues related to science and technology policies. This year we celebrated our 20th anniversary.
Over the past 20 years, NISTEP has contributed a lot to promoting science and technology policies through a variety of studies including science and technology indicators and science and technology foresight studies.
Over the past couple of years, NISTEP has provided basic data and materials to the government when it formulated the 3rd Science and Technology Basic Plan and a long- term strategy of "Innovation 25". This fiscal year, NISTEP began follow-up studies for the 3rd Science and Technology Basic Plan, a move that is considered to be the first step in the formulation of the 4th Science and Technology Basic Plan.
As the environment surrounding Japanese science and technology policies has been undergoing significant changes, the roles of science and technology for promoting regional economic development and solving global problems have been gaining increasing attention. Under the circumstances, we strongly believe that the role of NISTEP as a think-tank of the government will expand. In order to meet the general publicfs demand and expectations, all of the staff of NISTEP are ready to make all-out efforts. We sincerely seek your support and cooperation in making our research institute a very successful one.
July 2008
Tomoaki Wada
Director General, NISTEP