Abstract
Life sciences including drug development will certainly be the leading industry in the 21st century, following information technology. A peculiarity of this area is requirements of ethical nature as exemplified by the problems of genetic engineering. Japan has not been successful in developing science and technology policy in the field of health care. Health care should be incorporated in a system of science and technology policy, covering all aspects in basic and clinical research along with popularization, as well as those in promotion, evaluation and regulation. This paper reviews American and European policies on life science research and health care as a first step to identify the goal and problems of the Japanese policy to be established in future.
