Message from Director-General

The Center for Research and Development Strategy (CRDS) is a public think tank that analyses domestic and international trends in science and technology. Since its founding in 2003, CRDS has contributed significantly to Japan's science and technology policy-making. We aim to continue to be a trustworthy navigator in promoting science and technology in our country.

Science, technology, and innovation contribute to the enhancement of individual well-being, the safety, peace, and prosperity of nations, and more universally, the conservation of the environment and the sustaining of human life and culture. Global coordination is essential in the midst of increasing and multiple geopolitical disruptions around the world. We must endeavor to overcome such tensions and bring together scientists on a regular basis to combine their wisdom and experience in the deliberation of positive future possibilities.

Japan has its own urgent problems that need to be addressed. We stand out in the world with our rapidly aging population and declining birth rate. And we have energy problems related to global warming and our scarcity of natural resources for which we need to find our own solutions. But these are problems that cannot be solved by one country alone. At the same time, Japan has experienced various hardships in our modernization that have made us especially knowledgeable in finding solutions to the natural disasters and pollution that can be the byproducts of the modernization process. Because of this, we have much to offer to promote the development of emerging countries around the world. We hope that through open international exchange we can work together with others for sustainable development.

Science and technology for a desirable future society provides more than practical applications for greater efficiency and convenience, but must also foster the kind of social awareness that enhances respect for humanity and the preservation of basic human rights. By integrating the wealth of knowledge to be found in the natural sciences and engineering, the social sciences and humanities, and more, we must endeavor to secure the unwavering trust of our society.

CRDS will continue to promote proposals and communications that are grounded in high ideals and that will have international impact.