Biotechnology in Japan — towards the year 2000 … and beyond

Abstract

In the forthcoming period of paradigmatic change in technology, the ongoing development in information-related technologies will continue, while later, we will witness a full flowering of biotechnology, marking the beginning of serious approaches to the hitherto unexplored microcosm of life, an area in which a tremendous change affecting the future of Homo sapiens may well occur in the twenty-first century. If that happens, Japan will surely be one of the most powerful leaders of that change, and accordingly required to play a role worthy of its leadership. This role will be to aggressively tackle new challenges.