Abstract
This paper compares human genome projects in the U.S. and Japan and explores delegatory problems between scientists and policy-makers in Japan, using Guston's principal-agent framework that incorporates the concept of boundary organizations by analyzing how scientists effect policy-making processes institutionally. The research identifies the absence of boundary organizations in Japan's human genome project. The two distinct functions of boundary organizations in the U.S. are to provide for the appointment of scientists to science related agencies and the regulated scientific market formed by science advisory organizations. However, in the Japanese policy making process, neither of these functions is addressed.
