Abstract
Japanese activities on fusion structural materials R&D have been well organized under the coordination of university programs and JAERI/NIMS programs more than two decades. Where, two categories of structural materials have been studied, those are; reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steels (RAFs) as reference material and vanadium alloys and SiC/SiC composite materials as advanced materials. The R&D histories of these candidate materials and the present status in Japan are reviewed with the brief explanation of Japanese strategy and current status of fusion reactor engineering R&D.