Climate change adaptation, which aims to reduce the adverse effects of climate change and to utilize the positive effects, is getting crucial to cope with the effects of climate change. In Japan, the Climate Change Adaptation Act came into effect in 2018, clarifying the roles of adapting entities such as the national government, local governments, businesses, and citizens. Climate Change Adaptation Information Platform (A-PLAT) serves as the information platform based on the national Climate Change Adaptation Plan formulated in the same year. This paper explains domestic activities related to climate change adaptation and introduces how National Institute for Environmental Studies provides information and technical support to the adapting entities through A-PLAT and other means.

Occurrence data describing which species occurred in when and where on what basis of record are the fundamental for biodiversity information. Occurrence data provides significant information when analyzed collectively in large scale along with tempo-spatial axis. Occurrence data are standardized by “Darwin Core”. GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) collects and provides standardized biodiversity information in world-wide scale, and Japan has much contributed to its activity. Data in GBIF are used for the research of climate change, estimation of human health and economic impact, conservation ecology, etc. Tracing data has been realized by taking advantage of DOI, and DOI are now being used for the disposition of hypothetical species concept.

The targets of recycling rate of municipal solid waste set by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, have not been achieved due to its stagnating since the fiscal year 2007. After introducing the national survey on municipal solid waste management conducted annually for all local governments, the difference of definition on recycling amount between Japan and the EU was discussed. This manuscript argued that a higher incineration rate in Japan than in EU countries prevented the lower recycling rate from increasing. Recycling activities should be appropriately evaluated based on understanding the advantages and disadvantages of definitions on recycling rate both in Japan and the EU.

This paper introduces how patent information is used to evaluate the development of the environmental protection technology based on the recent academic research trend. In addition, the framework for technology evaluation published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is introduced, and the usefulness of patent information in the field of environmental technology is explained by introducing academic papers and the latest research on each stage of the development, inducing and diffusion of environmental protection technologies. Finally, case studies are introduced, including data and calculation processes, which are useful for the readers to learn.

The purpose of this study was to identify the intellectual property strategy of S Corporation, a global leader in the bicycle components industry. S Corporation is known as the “Intel of the bicycle industry” due to its dominant market share. However, the actual investigation shows that both its business model and IP strategy are different from those of Intel. In addition, while the main products in the bicycle industry are rapidly shifting from road and mountain bikes to e-bikes, S Corporation, despite being a latecomer, has secured a certain market share in e-bike components as well. Therefore, we studied S Corporation’s IP strategy for acquiring the leading market share in bicycle components and for entering the e-bike market.

In order to streamline and sophisticate research capability analysis, each Research Administrator (URA) in charge of analysis needs to collaborate across and beyond the institution. In recent years, programming techniques have been widely used in data analytics. Code for Research Administration (C4RA) was established to streamline and sophisticate analytical skills of URAs. In this paper, we introduce some examples in which Python or R was used for bibliographic information or KAKEN-database analysis. Finally, we explore the future direction of C4RA activities and the potential to contribute for establishment of URA system in Japan.