Abstract
This paper presents the recent status of industry-university cooperative research activities in Japan for mechatronics of information storage and input/output equipment. There are three research committees for promoting information exchange of technical problem and research topics on head-disk interface in hard disk drives (HDD), flexible media transport and image printing process which are supported by the JSME, Japanese Society of Tribologists and the Japanese Society of Precision Engineers. For hard disk drive technology, Storage Research Consortium is supporting more than 40 research groups in universities to perform basic research for future HDD technology. The past and present status of these activities are introduced, particularly focusing on HDD and flexible media transport mechanism.
