Abstract
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry launched the Industrial Cluster Project in 2001, which has resulted in 19 projects centered at various locations in Japan where METI's Regional Bureaus of Economy, Trade and Industry have collaborated with the private sector. About 5,800 small- and medium-sized companies and researchers from more than 220 universities and colleges have been involved in those projects. Examples of the projects include Regional Industry Revitalization Project (TAMA : Technology Advanced Metropolitan Area (western part of the Metropolitan Area)), Hokkaido Super Cluster Promotion Project (information technology and biotechnology), and Bio Five-Star Company & Tissue Engineering Project in KANSAI. While these activities have created new businesses, the Project has not yet succeeded in establishing a world-level cluster. Important tasks for the future include : (1) consolidating the general framework for the direction of the plan as a whole, (2) formulating more explicitly of the goals, action plans and outcome monitoring schemes for specific projects, and (3) promoting competitiveness of clusters through enhanced interactions among them, including that with counterparts in other countries.
