In January 2001 the new science and technology administrative structure came into force, comprising the Council for Science and Technology Policy, Cabinet Office (CSTP), the Ministry of Education, Culture, sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and other ministries, under the general supervision of CSTP.
The National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP) established the Science and Technology foresight Center (the Center) in January 2001, with the aim to strengthen survey functions about trends of important science and technology field. Concrete activity of a center is following three.
(Formulation of expert network)
The Center builds an information network linking numerous experts of various science and technology fields in the industrial, academic, and government sectors (the science and technology experts: about 2700 persons as of July, 2001). Through the network, the Center collects information in various science and technology fields, analyzes identify important R&D activities, and prospects the future directions.
Information collected from science and technology experts is regularly reported to CSTP and MEXT. The Center also publish the "Science and Technology Trends" on a monthly basis covering key items of the regular reports, and make it widely available through the NISTEP website (http://www.nistep.go.jp).
The key technologies about important technology field and domain are investigated and analyzed for the purpose of clarifying the important matters and concrete research-and-development targets that our country should tackle. Furthermore, the Center compares Japan's current and future performance on key technologies of various fields with those of the U.S. and major European nations.
NISTEP undertakes a technology foresight study using the Delphi method generally every five years to determine long-term trends in various fields of science and technology. In Technology Foresight Survey, the important targets for coming 30 years will be extracted, and the importance and realization time will be evaluated and analyzed. With the cooperation of many experts, the Center will continue this study.