WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SCM/Q2/JPN/37 
22 March 2004 
 
 (04-1255) 
Committee on Subsidies 
and Countervailing Measures Original:   English 
 
 
 
SUBSIDIES 
 
JAPAN'S Replies to Questions Posed by the  
European Communities1 Regarding the New and Full Notification of Japan2 
 
  The following communication, dated 18 March 2004, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Japan.  
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INDUSTRY: 
 
I. ASSISTANCE
 FOR  DEVELOPMENT  OF CIVIL  AIRCRAFT: 
 Please specify which costs are eligible for assistance and how many projects have 
received such assistance under this programme. 
 
Reply  
 
 Companies who implement the international jo int development project can obtain a loan from 
Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) for a part of the fu nds required for the project.  The loan is repaid 
in the term set beforehand regardless of the success or failure of the project, in the same way as the 
loan from commercial banks.    This programme is mainly a repayable, but ri sk-sharing Government i nvestment which covers 
the interest of the loan from DBJ. (The interests of  the loan from commercial banks aren’t covered.)    
  8 projects have received the assistance under this programme to date.  K. REMOTE
 SENSING  TECHNOLOGY:   
 To whom are the results of the subsidised research available?   
 
Reply  
  Image products are available to anyone who pays for them at the uniform price to the 
ERSDAC (Earth Remote Sensing Da ta Analysis Centre (http://www.ers dac.or.jp/)) that is a non-profit 
organization processing the raw data obtained fro m the sensors developed by this programme. 
 
                                                     
 
1 G/SCM/Q2/JPN/35. 
2 G/SCM/N/95/JPN. G/SCM/Q2/JPN/37 
Page 2  
 
 Q. REAL
 WORLD  COMPUTING:   
 Please explain the nature of the Real Wo rld Computing Partnership and its relation 
with commercial production of information processing technology. 
 
Reply  
 
 The Real World Computing Partnership (RWCP) was the only organization contracted by METI under the Real World Computing (RWC) Project  in order to develop fundamental information 
technology for next generation, which consiste d of 16 private enterprises and 4 non-profit 
organizations. 
 
 The RWC Project was undertaken as a governme nt project, because it would work for public 
good and it is important for society, but it was high risk R&D project on long term basis that private 
sector would not be able to achieve. The RWC project  ended in 2002, when the RWCP was dissolved. 
 
R. INFORMATION
 PROCESSING:   
 What proportion of research costs can be met by the programme? How many 
institutions benefited from this programme? 
 
Reply  
 
 Necessary costs for the programme are fully covered by budget of the central government 
because the works which are planned in this progra mme are originally its own works and outsourced 
to other institutions.   In addition, no institution recei ves benefit from this programme because all of the fruits of the 
programme are to be owned and used by the government. 
  8 institutions are contracted with  government under this programme. 
 S. INFRASTRUCTURE
 CONCERNING  INFORMATION  AND  ECONOMY:   
 Please explain in more detail the purpo se and operation of this programme. 
 
Reply  
  METI selects some projects for promoti ng information technology utilization from some 
areas in which such utilization will contri bute to solving systematic problems. 
 
 For example:  
• Preserving medical examination records using information technology. 
 
• Standardizing encode system for geographic information system. 
 
 METI outsources implementation of these projects to business associations or private 
companies with technical expertise in order to f acilitate understanding of th e people concerned about 
information technology utilization by these projects.   G/SCM/Q2/JPN/37 
 Page 3 
 
 
 U. PETROLEUM  REFINERY:   
 Please explain why fiscal year 1999 saw a particularly large amount budgeted. 
 
Reply  
 
 Only in fiscal year 1999, this programme s ubsidized petroleum companies not only for the 
interest for rationalized petroleum industry, but al so for the R&D cost. The budget for the R&D cost 
had large proportion in the subsidy for this programme in this year.  X. REFINING
 TECHNOLOGY  OF OIL  PRODUCING  COUNTRIES  ETC:   
 Please explain in greater detail the opera tion of this programme and the budget 
allocated to the different objectiv es and purposes listed.  What is the nature of the three direct 
beneficiaries of the programme and do they pass the subsidies through to other beneficiaries in 
the commercial oil sector? 
 Reply
 
  This programme contains several projects w hose beneficiaries differ from each other. For 
example, one of these projects is subsidized to pr omote investment by Japanese companies’ into oil-
producing countries. Another project is subsidized  for cooperative activities such as acceptance of 
trainees, or dispatch of experts. 
 
 In the meantime, all these subsidies have the same objective, which is to maintain the good 
relationship between Japan and oil-producing countries and make it closer. The programme’s budget 
is allocated in order to ensure stable oil supply to Japan. All three direct beneficiaries of such 
subsidies are Non Profit Organization and they work  for the public benefit of ensuring stable oil 
supply to Japan. Also, none of Japanese compani es concerned gain benefit from this programme 
directly.  
FINANCIAL: 
 
D. SPECIAL DEPRECIATION ON CERTAI N MACHINERY USED IN ADVANCED 
TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIES: 
 
 Is this programme available in additi on to other programmes mentioned under 
“Industry”? 
 Reply
 
 Yes.  
 What do the “industrial shipment figures” mentioned in the last paragraph mean? 
 Reply
 
 The “industrial shipment figures” mentioned in the last paragraph mean the industrial shipment figures of the certain advanced technology industrial group-sites areas. 
 
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