通常被国际视为技术发展推动者的可怕对手——日本通产省,现在要开始推动基础研究了。该省于去年11月宣称,将自今年4月起发动一“领导研究”专案,每年投入3亿日元,研究材料科学、光学及生物学等与商业用途尚有一段距离的领域。在此同时,通产省自不会放弃其原本的角色——资助政府及工业财团从事特定技术的发展。 Japan's MITI, which is usually terrified internationally as a catalyst for technology development, is now beginning to push for basic research. The province announced in November last year that it will launch a “research-led” project starting in April this year, investing 300 million yen a year to study areas where materials science, optics and biology are still far from commercial use. In the meantime, MITI will never give up its original role of financing government and industrial consortia for the development of specific technologies.