The Japanese economy is faced with the need for radical reforms of truly seismic impact. Many of the organizing systems in Japan today require reforms that have no precedent in history. As someone who has great expectations of AIST, as a member of the Tsukuba community who helped to found the Center for Collaborative Research, Tsukuba’s “nanotech park,” I would like to say a few words on this subject.

Mitsui is earnestly searching for new business models and industrial mechanisms that leverage the results of scientific and technological research. In this spirit, we founded a research and development subsidiary to develop successful models for an interdisciplinary approach to R&D, which is one of the guiding themes in today’s nanotechnology boom.

Many excellent researchers and engineers in a wide array of fields have joined Mitsui, forming a team of 110 professionals. About two years ago, a friend of mine came to us from AIST to assist in the launch of this project. Since then, joint researches between Mitsui and AIST have been one of the core axes of our projects.

Many existing companies are losing their former drive. One prescription for revival that is currently raising expectations is to use new technologies to formulate fresh and innovative business models. Such business models may be developed through partnerships among government, industry and academia; the reinvention of Japan as an “intellectual property nation”; and the formation of up to 1,000 university-based joint ventures. These are all excellent ideas in themselves. However, any frank assessment must concede that dependence on universities is an unwise policy, since universities are concerned with learning. Businesses based on intellectual content have so far proven a phantom, as they lack the human resources to deliver what they promise, and I see no reason to expect a great wave of new small businesses to emerge from these university-based ventures. There is no such thing as quality without quantity. AIST possesses such critical mass, as does Tsukuba. What Japanese enterprises need to do is to construct compelling business models and take concrete steps toward their fulfillment, sweeping the nation with powerful new ideas.

A technology strategy is not sufficient in itself. What is essential is a “knowledge strategy” that fuses internal and external sources of knowledge. Japan needs to cultivate a highly active community through the efforts of many sectors, including the school system, public agencies, local government, associations, NPOs and private enterprise. Such an active community would have the capability to construct systems that put knowledge to work, fostering mechanisms for the use of intellectual property with a broad view, casting aside narrow, self-centered viewpoints. Such a system of knowledge management would also support a comprehensive network that gives meaning to broad-based collaboration both within and across organizations. As a member of the community and the center of Tsukuba’s nanotech park, our XNRI Group (www.xnri.com) aims to contribute in every way it can.