The Japan Society for Science Policy and Research Management (JSSPRM) has witnessed, since its foundation 17 years ago, the rapid decline of the Japanese economy. The government policies in this peirod have helped improvement of competitiveness of the national industry by promoting commercialization of outcomes of academic research. However, the improvement is one in comparison with the past Japan, and the national competitiveness still falls behind other countries. Fostering new industries implies not only research and development per se, but also enhancements of other factors such as marketing, intellectual property strategy, and dealing with national and international legal problems. Meanwhile, some industrialists seem to tend to pursue short-term success by speculative means instead of laborious technology development efforts, resulting in the current poor performance of the Japanese economy. JSSPRM should cover, beyond research on planning methods and case studies, all processes and factors that contribute to commercial success.

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Information Society is a sociotechnical formation that has evolved from early configurations of industrial society. What makes it distinctive, and justifies the use of the label "Information Society", is its use of new Information Technology. Information Society itself evolves through various configurations of the technological knowledge, organisational structures, and social practices that are constitutive of industrial societies. Three phases of Information Society-"island", "archipelago", and "continental" phases-can be characterised in terms of the type of IT equipment and services that are employed, and, equally importantly, in terms of the styles of use and applications to which they are put and the sorts of organisational embedding and strategy that evolve in and that help shape these contexts. A future phase can also be outlined speculatively. In the "island" phase, up to, say, the late 1970s, IT facilities were typically small (interms of processing power, by current standards), and detached from one another; organisations used them in a centralising way, with IT facilities concentrated in data processing centres. In the 1980s, the "archipelago" is characterised by a proliferation of IT devices on a more human scale, with limited (two-way) communications between them being the norm. Despite public fears about the impact of IT use on employment and concern about "deskilling", the trend was more one of upgrading of work, with the decentralised use of PCs (mainly as stand-alone devices) causing problems for corporate DP managers. Equally, economists were puzzled by the lack of reflection of IT investment in productivity statistics (the "Solow paradox"). In the 1990s, a continent of IT devices is crossed by "information superhighways", with networks increasingly linking islands of automation. The Internet becomes a near-universal medium for computer linkages, and mobile systems of many sorts becoming prominent for voice and data communications. Late in the decade, when access to the Internet was widespread, and the Web provided a familiar design paradigm for information exchange, many businesses and government organisations became active in the online transfer of transactional and related data. By the turn of them illennium, there were arguments that Solow's productivity paradox was beginning to be overcome-perhaps because of the increased networking, and associated organisational The opening years of the twenty-first century see the further consolidation of the "continent" phase of Information Society. Two significant evolutionary steps look likely to be peer-to-peer networking, and "ubiquitous computing". With many potential applications in education, healthcare, consumer services, and business organisation, it seems likely that the next decade will see the emergence of a new phase of Information Society characterised by at least some elements of such an ecosystem vision.

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The Japanese government has established an "e-Japan Strategy" for realization of originality-oriented society supported by information technology. It has also finalized policies for structural reform of economy. These policies have a common background. Both consist of a vision of the originality-oriented society, formulated a priori, combined with economic reform for its actualization based on the competitive market principle. Both emphasize that some sacrifice is needed to attain prosperity in future. These policies, however, neglect the importance of restoring governability of the nation, do not recognize differences between social and economic reforms, and lack understanding of information technology as the key factor for security and its role. Restoring governability of the nation is the target of the highest priority. For that purpose, those policies are superficial and probably impair the credibility of the government. The role of the administration should also be defined more clearly. The social structure cannot be changed by a short-term policy; the originality-oriented society should be conceived on the needs rooted in the present society. Advances of information technology for national security should be integrated in the policies, not only to fortify the society but to assure its global activity.

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The purpose of design is to provide a product that satisfies customers in as short a period as possible. For a product to satisfy its customers, it must be easy, safe, comfortable or even amusing to use, not to mention basic performance such as high strength or rigidity and low vibration or heat. While recent developments in information technology have considerably reduced the period for development of basic functions through digital design methodologies, sense-related aspects of a product resist digitization because of difficulty in their quantification. Future extension of information technology in the design field thus depends on how much digitization of the sense is possible. The authors has proposed, as a new approach, integration of computational dynamics into ergonomics for digitization of the sense. The basic concept is what the author calls Dynamic Cooperation: human-friendly machines should be capable of diagnosing itself for safe operation, understanding users' dissatisfaction and changing accordingly its environment. The first step for its realization is Static Cooperation, or determining design specifications that satisfy a cluster of target users. The present article describes the present status of relevant technologies and reviews problems to be solved to obtain digital data on dynamic and static man-machine relationships for digitization of the sense.

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An analysis is made of the technology management and policy concerns in the transition to the knowledge-driven economy in Japan. Japan has been competitive in the old economy but may be lagging behind in the new economy. The traditional areas of strengths are no longer sufficient for meeting mega-competition in the new economy. Japanese firms would have to undergo major structural as well as managerial changes in order to be competitive in the knowledge-driven economy. The Japanese corporate weaknesses are linked to the weaknesses in the innovation systems. Shifts in innovation trajectory are discussed taking the case of robotics, which is a sector in the old economy that is becoming more knowledge-driven recently. Robotic innovations have been showing characteristics of 'Complex Trajectories', which are different from the traditional 'Streamlined Trajectories'. Technology management and policy recommendations are discussed at different hierarchical decision making levels in the innovation system. The Japanese government policies, which have been technology-push oriented, will have to become more demand-driven and diffusion oriented.

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In this research, we conducted a questionnaire survey on R&D activities with 530 Japanese firms' in the U.S. and could have 87 responses in January 1999. We had outcomes as followings; R&D resource transfers from head-quarters in Japan to US subsidiaries had little effects on R&D activities in the US, accumulation of local R&D resource was important for empowerment of subsidiaries, adjustment of R&D resource from Japan to local R&D environment was also important, successful firms had synergy between head-quarter and subsidiaries, and Japanese firms' R&D activities in the U.S. would be promoted.

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In this paper we studied how the transaction type of 'Drawings Approved' (DA) functions as a barometer of improvement degree of the industrial system in the Indonesian automotive industry. A previous study shows that "Learning-by-Reciprocating" is possible through transaction of parts in the DA transaction, which accelerates the speed of technology transfer. However, all four types of skill are needed for DA suppliers: 1) initial development skills, 2) later development skills, 3) mass production skills, and 4) improvement skills. Based on these characters of DA transaction, we analyzed the advancement level of Indonesian auto industry, using it as a indicator of improvement degree. Our findings show that the local automotive industrial system is not mature yet. However we also found that some Indonesian suppliers close to being "DA supplier" which indicates that Indonesian Industry system is in progress.

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R&D investment decision making has become a crucial issue in an era of mega-competition. This work aims to construct a concept of a virtuous cycle trajectory between R&D investment, technology stock and economic growth on the basis of Pontryagin's theory of optimal processes, a practical model for identifying an optimal R&D investment level was developed. A theoretical analysis was also conducted and empirical analyses focussing on Japan's manufacturing industry over the two decades were attempted to demonstrate a useful tool for R&D investment decision making.

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Large-scale scientific and basic research projects are more immportant in the chemical industry than in the electrical or mechanical industry. Developing products from the results of basic research requires cooperation between those who do product development and those who do basic research. A large-scale project exploring althernate raw materials for production must also consider the technology available and society's willingness to accept different products or price. The analytical method of this papar is based on the concept of demand articulation evaluating similar projects in the past This paper then proposes the best way such large-scale projects should be managed and evaluated.

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