Big science traces its origin to the military research that ensued the Manhattan Project. Numerous basic research projects performed to this date fail under this heading. The main am of most big science projects is to advance knowledge for its own sake, cost being a secondary issue. This, it is argued, should not be so since one big science project entails foregoing many smaller ones in other fields. Further thought should be given to reconciling the continuation of big science projects, including accelerators, nuclear fusion, and fast neutron breeder reactors, with the needs of various research fields.

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In 1986, GATT began, at the request of the USA, to look into the internationalization of the intellectual property system, this article analyzes, from the standpoint of politics and economics, the new developments that have occurred in the international technology order since that date, paying particular attention to the intellectual property system as it is considered to be the core of this incipient order. For an international order to be effective, it is necessary to devise common policies. This, however, is hampered by the fact that many developing and socialist countries have not enacted yet any laws on the protection of intellectual property. The basis of international competition is rapidly changing with hegemony being now determined by technology rather than capital. Hence the current drive to strengthen the protection of intellectual property worldwide. The intellectual property system is a social system designed to promote technological development and the transfer of technology. Yet, scientific and technological resources tend to concentrate in specific areas, the transfer from these areas of concentration to peripheral areas does not work well. The problems to overcome to enable the effective transfer of technology across borders both among industrialized counties and with the developing countries are numerous.

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This study is a report to the Ministry of Education published in March 1990. It estimates the supply and demand of scientists and engineers engaged in information processing - so-called info-engineers for short - by the year 2000 in Japan, and discusses relevant educational issues. Information processing is here taken to include computer science, information systems, computer engineering and hardware engineering. The estimated demand for info-engineers by the year 2000 is put at 1.9 or 2 million, out of which 590,000 to 660,000 would be needed in the R&D sector. These figures are arrived at on the basis of real GNP figures and the number of personal computers currently in use. The supply was estimated through a policy-based model which incorporated assessments of the effects of the relevant policies implemented so far, including increasing the number of student places in information-related educational programmes, converting certain occupational categories into information processing, and encouraging women info-engineers to resume work after long periods of absence for family reasons. An increase in the number of students in this area will naturally entail a corresponding increase in the demand for pertinent educational staff. Based on the given estimates, scenarios for meeting the demand and supply needs are drawn and policy courses delineated. Numerous suggestions are put forward to promote the education of info-engineers.

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This paper shows cultural and societal background, where the number of young men, who are highly aspired to science and technology, declines. The purpose of the article is to investigate the Ortega's hypothesis that a progress of scientific and technological civilization decreases the number of young men who have high aspiration for science and technology, and to clarify the mechanisms that yield such phenomenon. The Ortega's hypothesis is formulated into a positive model, which describes associations between science/technology and culture/society. And, in order to examine the hypothesis, the association analysis of the opinion surveys, such as loglinear model, are applied. The analysis describes that the hypothesis is consistent with the present situation in Japan. Further, the results of extrapolatory simulations based on the short-term associations are consistent to the Ortega's superlong-term hypothesis. The results of these analyses show the fact that the paradoxical phenomenon, pointed out by Ortega, necessarily occurs.

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The aim of this article is to present an overview of how Japan has affected the international science community with their creation and use of internationally co-authored articles. The analysis ahs been carried out on three levels, from macro to micro, i.e.: country-level, laboratory-level, and scientist-level. Trends and patterns in international collaboration between Japan and 97 nations, according to eight large divisions of scientific disciplines for the period 1981-1986, using data from the Science Citation Index are presented. Relationships between Japan and its largest partners are described, and Japan專 position in the collaborative activities of different countries are delineated. Collaboration with Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, France, and China are observed at a laboratory-level. Furthermore, a frequently cited scientist is analysed as a case study for the observation of the international network. One of the major findings has been that internationalization in science progressed in Japan during the period under study. The increase of international activity gradually altered Japan's scientific relationships with other countries, establishing more equilibrium between Japan and the USA, Western Europe, and other Asian Pacific countries. Collaboration patterns between Japan and each of the other countries are not similar, but rather each relationship is characterized by different fields of science.

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This study discusses the role of grants from private foundations and compares it with that of public grants from the Ministry of Education and Science. Private foundations tend to be characterized by their public-minded stance, flexibility and vitality. As such they often make up for the faults displayed by the public sector. This complementarity notwithstanding, the size of the grants awarded and the total amount involved is clearly insufficient to make private foundation grants a significant instrument for research promotion. The distribution of private foundation grants by types of institutions is similar to that displayed by public grants. There are however a number of differences; (a) in the area of humanities and social sciences private foundation grants give higher priority to young researchers; (b) they are often awarded to researchers who have not received any public and private grants, (c) private foundations tend to favour a specific group of private universities.

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