Abstract
This study is about the current state and prospects of the KRI and similar firms. The KRI is a firm undertaking commissioned research; such firms constitute a unique type in Japan. Given that Japanese firms tend to be secretive about R&D and that the mobility of people with relevant skills is low, being therefore difficult for firms to obtain the best brains around, new trends are appearing pointing to an increasing eagerness to enter new fields of business, to the mounting costs of R&D, and to the ever-increasing uncertainty of results. These trends are breaking the traditional secrecy of R&D among Japanese firms. In this context, firms undertaking commissioned research are bound to play a larger role in the future concerning the national development of technology.
