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as of January 1998
Introduction
The Mechanical Engineering Laboratory was established on August 13th, 1937 and last year, in 1997, we celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the laboratory. A commemorative volume was published and we held a conference entitled: "The Future of Mechanical Engineering:- Message to the 21st Century". The age of sixty is of great significance in the traditional Japanese calendar, which was organized on a sixty-year cycle so that on the sixtieth birthday one returns to the calendar zodiac sign of one's birth starting a new cycle with reaffirmation of hope and new resolution for the future. The laboratory therefore began it's second cycle resolving to contribute to the progress of science and technology in the world, and to the sustainable development of human society.
In spite of the economic recession, the Government increased the R&D budget in 1997 based on the Science and Technology Basic Law enacted by Parliament on November 15th, 1995, and the Science and Technology Basic Plan adopted by the Cabinet on July 2nd, 1996. It is our aim to contribute to economic and social development in Japan, a country which has few raw material resources for the production of goods.
Over the past year, the laboratory established a new special research group for "Quantum and Molecular Mechanical Engineering" in the hope of making a break-through in the Mechanical Engineering. The members of this group were drawn together from various research departments in the laboratory.
On December 4th, 1997 the Administrative Reform Panel issued it's final report which recommended that some national institutions, including research institutes, should become independent agencies modelled on the executive agency system in Great Britain. We now have to examine how the research institutes of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology will be reformed, and their relationship with Government in the future.
The structure of this report is similar to that of last year, with the addition of a section on our research work on micromachines and, of course, updated reports of our activities in other areas. I hope that you will find the report interesting and helpful, giving a clear account of the achievements of the past year and the issues we face. Finally, I very much hope that it will aid international scientific cooperation.
Yoshinori Nakazawa, Dr. Eng.
Director General
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory
produced by General Research Counselor
