The Japanese government recently announced plans to establish national goals in 10 advanced technology fields in order to enhance the country's competitiveness on the global stage. 

 

Japan aims to become the world leader in areas such as nanotechnology, supercomputers, measurement technology, biotechnology, and seabed research. These fields are fiercely competitive, and mostly dominated by Japan, Europe, and the United States. To gain an edge on its Western rivals, the Japanese government plans to narrow its primary strategic goals to facilitate more efficient distribution and usage of limited funds and human resources. 

 

A subcommittee of the Council of Science and Technology -- which advises the Minister of Education, Science, and Technology ?is charged with determining the 10 national goals to be realized within the next 10 years. Documents from the subcommittee indicate that the selection criteria for determining specific goals are: maintaining and deepening the advantage that Japan already has in certain fields, pursuing a leading position in essential fields with significant spillover effects, and developing technologies that save lives, improve the quality of life, and protect the social infrastructure. 

 

The subcommittee placed its highest priority on the development of supercomputers, as they are necessary to perform the kind of complex simulations required for advanced biotechnology and nanotechnology research. Research into new medicines, for example, often relies on supercomputers to decipher genetic information. Because such sophisticated simulation capabilities are instrumental in improving industrial competitiveness, the subcommittee hopes to have a next-generation supercomputer up and operational by 2010. The new machine would replace the Earth Simulator, a supercomputer designed to predict air and seawater circulation and to analyze the Earth's inner structure. Unveiled in 2002, the Earth Simulator, at the time, boasted the world's highest level of processing power at 35.86 trillion calculations per second. It has since been surpassed by two supercomputers developed in the US. 

 

Japan currently possesses the world's most sophisticated measurement technology equipment, which enables three-dimensional observation and production of items the size of a nanometer or smaller. The Spring-8 facility in Hyogo Prefecture is the most advanced lab for analyzing materials using radiation. The subcommittee plans to further upgrade such equipment before 2010. 

 

In terms of seabed research, the subcommittee is most interested in developing new energy resources, searching for useful microbes and enzymes, as well as unlocking the mysteries behind the mechanisms of marine earthquakes. The subcommittee called for a working prototype of a robot capable of exploring the deepest depths of the ocean by 2010.

 

The subcommittee is also advocating research to enhance rocket technology that will make a versatile space transportation system a reality by 2015. Among other things, Japan envisions a transport system that could launch new satellites and expand the scope of interplanetary research.