Japan's science and technology policy shifted toward innovation policy in the 2000s to address economic stagnation and social issues. In 2021, the 6th STI Basic Plan broadens its scope across disciplines. However, this shift increased policy complexity due to wider spatial reach, long-term considerations, and systemic trade-offs. Innovation requires continuous resource input and balanced technological development. Policymakers must navigate short- and long-term priorities while addressing ethical, economic, and political challenges. As a result, interdisciplinary research and integrated knowledge have become essential for effective innovation policy and sustainable progress.

Innovations based on advanced technologies are inherently challenging to forecast, particularly regarding their developmental trajectories. Moreover, predicting how society will utilize and accept these technologies has been repeatedly emphasized as a central theme in discussions surrounding socio-technical systems theory. For this reason, when formulating innovation policies, it is crucial for experts to observe, interpret, and engage in interdisciplinary discussions from the perspectives of their respective fields of expertise. This special issue focuses on recent innovation policy targets, including semiconductors, telecommunications, drug discovery, and startups, providing an overview of the policy challenges identified from the perspectives of information science, engineering, management, and law, along with corresponding recommendations from each field.

AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) may emerge in the near future, demonstrating capabilities surpassing human abilities in all intellectual tasks and adapting to new situations. Meta-Nature is a concept proposed by the author, referring to a state where the artificial environment becomes a new form of nature through extreme automation, similar to how nature operates automatically for humans. Since it is necessary for the environment to continue production and distribution autonomously even in unanticipated situations, AGI serves as a prerequisite for Meta-Nature.

As the invention of tools and language suggests, innovation originally arises from human activities within nature. Similar innovations are expected to occur within Meta-Nature. This paper provides an overview of the impacts that these new concepts already have on the practice of research and proposes what we should prepare for the arrival of, or failure to reach, "meta-natural selection" — a future environment surrounding research and innovation.

"Advanced semiconductors" with a manufacturing process of 5 nm or less are attracting attention as there are active global movements, such as economic and political tensions between the US and China regarding TSMC and the launch of a factory in Japan. On the other hand, since "Moore's Law" in semiconductor industries, "legacy semiconductors" fabricated using older processing technologies also have important technical and industrial significance. In this paper, we summarize the significance of "legacy semiconductors" and ways to effectively utilize them as a tool for innovation.

Beyond 5G (B5G) represents next-generation communication technology building upon 5G, aiming to address various societal challenges such as enhanced data rates, reduced latency, massive connectivity, extended coverage, improved autonomy, energy efficiency, sustainability, security, digital inclusion, and industrial competitiveness. B5G serves as the foundation for cyber-physical systems and is expected to function as a critical "lifeline" supporting daily life and industries. Achieving B5G requires key technologies including all-optical networks for low latency and power efficiency, non-terrestrial networks for wide coverage, OpenRAN for flexibility, AI-driven communication-sensing integration, advanced spectrum utilization, local 5G/6G, and software-based systems. Building the B5G infrastructure demands interdisciplinary research, enhanced infrastructure support, and strategic talent development. Collaboration across fields such as telecommunications, AI, semiconductors, and IoT, along with testbeds for technology validation and researcher training, is essential. Strengthening international cooperation and domestic inter-agency collaboration will ensure talent supply, social implementation of research, and contributions to global standardization efforts.

The development of Beyond 5G (6G) technology has begun, with Japan focusing on NTT Group's IOWN initiative, which integrates photonic and electronic technologies to create an all-optical network. This next-generation communication platform aims to achieve ultra-high speed, ultra-low latency, and energy efficiency. In 4G and 5G, it was often difficult to deliver customer-perceived value due to either exceeding user needs or failing to make high speeds tangible. Beyond 5G, however, emphasizes low power consumption as a critical feature directly addressing environmental issues. This focus could serve as a competitive edge not only in technological standardization but also in business standardization. This article explores the business potential of all-optical network technologies, such as photonic-electronic integrated semiconductors, with reference to other environmental technology examples.

Although Japan is one of the world's leading countries in the creation of new drugs, a decline in its drug discovery capabilities has been pointed out in recent years. Despite the presence of key players necessary for drug creation—including star scientists, major pharmaceutical companies, venture capitals, and government agencies—there is no established ecosystem that facilitates collaboration among these players. This paper aims to identify the challenges and propose solutions for Japan's drug discovery ecosystem by integrating academic insights, with a particular focus on the author's research on "star scientists." First, the paper provides an overview of the background that necessitated the creation of a drug discovery ecosystem and reviews prior studies on drug discovery and ecosystems. Next, it outlines the current challenges facing Japan's drug discovery ecosystem. Finally, from the perspective of innovation policy, it proposes new policy packages to promote a virtuous cycle within the ecosystem.

In this paper, we point out the inherent conflict between the corporate values of large companies and the venture capital (VC) values in the increasing Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) activities in Japan in recent years. CVC refers to the activities where business corporations invest in startups through equity for strategic purposes. We highlight that this conflict leads to a situation where while business corporations have incentives to actively participate in decision-making, their deeper involvement also raises litigation risks. It is noted that practitioners in Japan may not fully recognize these risks, and thus, we aim to provide managerial insights on this matter.