Business Report FY2017
1．General
During 47 years since its establishment, the Institute for Future Engineering (IFENG), a
first-generation think tank in Japan, has continuously been trying to gain an insight into
the developing tendency of science and technology and into socioeconomic changes, toidentify issues and their solutions for a desirable future on the basis of engineering
methodologies, and to propose ways how science and technology solve possible problems.
The fiscal 2017 concludes the fifth year of IFENG as a public-interest corporation. Efforts
to achieve a capability commensurate with the status of the institute have resulted in 70
researchers (mostly part-timers) compared with the initial 34. Synergy of the newly hired
part-timers with different backgrounds with the full-time researchers who have got
accustomed to the new management system has led to a variety of commissioned works
and has expanded the business to include independent nonprofit projects. Meanwhile,
IFENG obtained for 2017 the fourth place in the GGTTI think tank ranking in the scienceand technology area, following the eighth in 2012 and 2013, the sixth in 2014, and thefifth in 2014 and 2015. However, the financial position of IFENG is not strong enough:the immediate priorities for the institute are expansion and stabilization of the businessand improvement of skills of the expanded part-time research staff.

IFENG's article of incorporations define its activities in three categories1): investigationsin the area of future engineering, interaction with the public related to future engineering(publicity, services, etc.), and international exchange related to future engineering.
The activities of a public-interest corporation are to be classified into nonprofit (N) andfor-profit (F) ones. The former is intended for the general public, while the latter is for
specific parties.

2. Business-related activities
For explanations in this section, the N and P activities are further divided into three each:(1) commissioned investigations (investigations driven by commissions or subventions
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by other parties), (2) independent investigations (investigations relying on its own fund),and (3) interactive research2). Individual details are presented below. Activities related tointernational exchange are described in the last paragraph without differentiating N andP categories.

A total of 43 projects were implemented in FY2017, including two continued from thepreceding year and four to be continued in the next year. Thirty-nine were thus concluded
within the fiscal year and considered in the account settlement.

The current contract-based projects include 17 for N1, 21 for P1 and 1 for P2. In addition,
two each of N2, N3 and P3 projects have been performed. One of the two N2 projects is
to be transferred to the N1 category within the current year; the other also to the N1
category (financed by a private body) in the coming year.

(1) Commissioned investigations
Of the 38 projects completed in FY2017, seven were subventionary: two supported by
the private sector (Watanabe Memorial Foundation for the Advancement of NewTechnology), four subsidized by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research ("Kakenhi",
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science)(including joint investigations), and one by
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the remaining 31 were commissioned projects3).
The commissions came from six governmental agencies for 11 projects (compared with
12 in the preceding year, the same hereinafter), three government-run institutions for 6(14), two universities for 4 (4), and eight business companies for 10 (17). The
commissioning government agencies included the Cabinet Office, the Ministry ofEducation, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, andthe Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Other commissioning parties included
Japan Science and Technology Agency and other national research institutes, as well as
the University of Tokyo. The four projects to be continued to the next year consist of asubventionary project and three commissioned ones.
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In terms of the business categories, 17 projects belong to nonprofit activities and 31 forprofit activities (F1).

(2) Independent investigations(i) Independent nonprofit investigations (N2)
The self-financed nonprofit independent investigations carried out in 2016 included
preparatory works for supporting commissioned projects (original concepts) and studies
by full-time researchers to expand their knowledge.
An example of the preparatory works is a new subventionary project “The Current Status
of Japan’s Scientific and Technological Capability: reality and challenges”, for which
researchers apply and enhance methodologies they have acquired as think tank members.
Another subventionary project “Investigations on the Limitations of the Third-Generation
Artificial Intelligence Based on Deep Learning” exemplifies expansion of researchers’
knowledge, in which they examine limitations of deep learning and perform conceptual
design of next-generation artificial intelligence for uncharted future beyond such
limitations.

(ii) Independent for-profit investigations (F2)
The independent for-profit investigations included two projects (consulting) to support
business companies' activities related to science and technology based on IFENG’sexisting knowledge.

(3) Interaction with the public(i) Nonprofit interaction with the public (N3)
The activities below started in 2015 to feedback the research outcome of IFENG to widepublic:(a) In an SNS-based publicity program, IFENG’s official Twitter account was establishedalong with accounts for individual projects. It is intended to familiarize the public withthe research outcome of the institute and to encourage their access to essential issues by3

inviting the followers of the accounts to visit the official IFENG website, particularly the“Insight” and “Forum” sections. Experiences obtained in the projects implemented inFY2015-16 were helpful.

(b) Publication of Annual Report 2017 and expansion of the English pages in IFENG’s
website were realized along with individual researchers’ publication of their research
results and presentation of their views in a number of printed media, conferences,meetings and seminars.

(ii) For-profit interaction with the public (F3)
Activities in this category included support of Aviation Forum and publishing (five copiesof the MEXT Report of the 9th Science and Technology Foresight were sold).

(4) International exchange
Three study groups from China and Taiwan visited IFENG in FY2017.
A total of 21 researchers visited the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Australia,Sweden, Finland, Singapore, Vietnam, China, Taiwan and Republic of Korea for theirinvestigations.

Notes
1) Article 4.
2) These categories are hereinafter represented as N1, N2, .., P1, P2, etc.
3) Investigations supported by subsidization from subventionary funds are called“subventionary”; those based on other financial sources are “commissioned”.

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