Abstract
The history and performance of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) is reviewed in conjunction with the contributions of Japanese scientists. ICDP is a land-based equivalent of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), but has a much smaller budget. Consequently, the combined fund is used solely to cover direct costs, that is, drilling, logging, ICDP workshops, and a small number of committee meetings. The organizational structure of ICDP is simple; the Assembly of Governors (AOG), the Executive Committee (EC), and the Science Advisory Group (AOG), each meet once a year to decide all details promptly. All indirect costs such as salaries are covered by the host country (Germany). On the other hand, its performance is excellent: nineteen scientific drilling projects have been conducted since its inauguration in 1996 including Unzen volcano drilling and other five projects proposed by Japanese lead proponents. Besides, the COREF project, coral reef drilling at the Ryukyu islands, which was proposed by Japanese principal investigators (PIs), was approved recently and drilling will start in the near future. Continental drilling will become increasingly important when using scientific results to establish a sustainable future for human society.
