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The diversity is essential requisite for promotion of scientific and technological innovations. It is possible to open a new perspective of science and technology by the collaboration and discussion with various stakeholders having different specialties and values, irrespective of gender and nationality. JST is, by promoting advances in diversity in its all activities in science and technology, undertaking possible problems of our future society, contributing to the strengthening of industrial competing power of Japan as well as to the enrichment of spiritual happiness of people. Our activities in this field accord with the “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” agenda of the United Nations, in which goals relevant to diversity advancement are shown, including gender equality, contributing to efforts on our domestic problems but also to those on problems common to various countries.

Currently, the activity of woman is being positioned at the core of the Growth Strategy of the Japanese Government, being started as “the largest potential of Japan” in the strategy paper. Expending the participation of woman researchers in research projects is substantially important for advancing research and development, as they are a party of various researchers supporting science and technology innovations. JST is expecting that woman researchers would take this opportunity, positively and will apply to our Programs, actively. JST is undertaking the improvement of our “Childbirth, Child-raising, Nursing Care Support System”, to constantly, based on the voice of the system users, creating environments enabling a researcher on leave to return his/her research.

JST is promoting diversity in research, based on our perspective that the diversity is for understanding of other researchers having ideas different from yours, and for creation of new values by combining your and their ideas. The diversity thus has potentials to give solutions not only to the domestic problems but also to problems common in all nations across the world. Therefore, JST is undertaking the societal problem of the globe such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), through the promotion of diversity in research, collaborating with foreign institutions.

JST is promoting the diversity by ensuring the activities of women researchers, of course young researchers, and foreign researchers having foreign citizenship. To ensure that each researcher is fully able to exercise his/her skills, JST is providing continual supports for childbirth, childcare, and homecare of elderly relatives, and endeavoring to maintaining a balanced membership composition in committees and alike. JST especially welcomes the participation of women researches to our program, from whom we cannot have so many in previous years, to realize environments where various kinds of researcher can work, cooperating and competing with each other. Through these activities, JST is pursuing the creation of new values.