Construction of new carbon therapy facility has started at Gunma-University Heavy-Ion Medial Center, GHMC. The maximum energy of accelerated carbon ions is designed to be 400 MeV/u so that the residual range exceeds 25 cm in water. The detailed design of the facility is based on design and R&D studies performed at National Institute of Radiological Sciences. The facility will have three treatment rooms and one treatment room for future developments. The construction will be completed in FY2008 and beam tests are scheduled in 2009.

For production of multi-charged U ion beam for RIKEN Radio isotope beam factory (RIBF) project, we chose two methods (UF₆ and sputtering of metal U). We produced few pμA of medium charge state (14～18+) U ion beam with use of UF₆. For production of higher charge state of U ion beam, we used the sputtering method. Using this method, we produced ～80 pnA of U³⁵⁺ ion beam. These beams were used for commissioning of the accelerator complex of RIKEN RIBF.

In March 2007 the ²³⁸U beam was accelerated up to 345MeV/u at RIBF. Handling of U at the ion source involves some risks of surface contamination and internal exposure and the accelerator components are becoming contaminated with alpha emitters. The facility must meet the request of the laws and the actual safety, and the work must be properly controlled.

Tokai Radioactive Ion Accelerator Complex (TRIAC) constructed by High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) started to supply the 0.178 to 1.1 MeV/u radioactive nuclear beams (RNBs) for experiments since November 2005. The TRIAC facility is an Isotope Separator On Line (ISOL) based RNB facility, and uses a tandem accelerator (primary accelerator), an ISOL, a charge-breeder of electron cyclotron resonance type, and a heavy-ion linac complex (post accelerator). Several experimental studies have been performed successfully using ⁸Li beams with various energies. In order to increase the beam energy up to 5-8 MeV/u, it is planned to connect the heavy-ion linac to the superconducting linac existing at JAEA tandem facility.

Highly advanced technologies of a particle therapy of cancer are reviewed. The studied particles are photon, electron, pion, neutron, proton, anti-proton and carbon ion. An attractive feature of a heavy ion therapy system is specially emphasized. It is found that there is a bottleneck of national scale spread. A naive intuition and examination suggest the bottleneck is a throughput of patients where this issue has been little discussed in the past. A possible straightforward solution is mentioned.

ATF2 is an international final focus test beam line for ILC in the frame work of the ATF international collaboration. The new beam line is under construction to extend the extraction line at ATF, KEK, Japan. The beam line consists of extraction, diagnostic, β matching and final focus sections, where the beam energy is 1.3 GeV. The total length is ～90 m. The final focus section is scaled to the ILC one with essentially same number of magnets, where the lengths are ～30 m and ～660 m at ATF2 and ILC, respectively. So, the final focus optics is the local chromaticity correction scheme which has never been experimentally verified yet. First goal of ATF2 is the verification with achievement of σ^*_y=34 nm, where σ^*_y is the geometrical vertical beam size at focal point (IP). Second goal is to stabilize the beam focal point at a few nano meter level for long period in order to assure the high luminosity.

For the stability requirement, floor of the extended area is refurbished in summer shutdown of ATF, i.e. by end of September 2007. The floor will become to a monolith of 50 cm thick concrete slab in the similar way of the ATF-DR floor. All quadrupole magnets, their support system, cavity-type beam position monitors have been constructed by international collaboration. Many components such as the magnet movers and support system of final doublet are provided with in-kind contributions. The components will be installed in the new beam line after the floor completion. In next summer, 2008, the extraction section will be re-configured from the existing extraction line. At the same time, whole beam line of ATF2 will be completed. ATF2 beam line will be commissioned in October 2008.

While China catching up and the United States undergoing a dynamic transfomation, Japan has lost its “Japan as Number One’position since after the economic bubble burst. According to the World Competitiveness Yearbook issued by Swiss business school IMD, Japan places 24^th overall among the 51 countries in 2007, even though Japan has been spending more and more R&D fund since early 1990. In this short paper, the possible reason of loosing position and the solution are discussed by comparing with the US.