Business Report FY2020
1．General
During 50 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 2020 concludes the eighth year of IFENG as a public-interest corporation.
Efforts to achieve a capability commensurate with the status of the institute have resulted
in 78 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 contracted works andhas expanded the business to include independent nonprofit projects. Meanwhile, IFENG
obtained for 2020 the third place in the GGTTI think tank ranking in the science andtechnology area, following the eighth in 2012 and 2013, the sixth in 2014, the fifth in2015 and 2016, and fourth in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The financial record for FY2020
ended up in the red; while the total income was over ¥230 million, its effect was cancelledout by a sluggish growth in the latter half of the year and an extraordinary loss related tothe anniversary activities. Thus, the fundamental financial position of IFENG still remains
weak.
The immediate priorities for the institute are expansion and stabilization of the business
and, particularly, improvement and effective utilization of skills of the expanded parttime research staff. IFENG itself had to change its working pattern in response to theworldwide changes of business climate caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which
occurred late FY2019, but this situation has proved to be a strong motivation to advancedigitization of work, which has fully compensated for problems caused by the pandemic,
as demonstrated by the Institute’s semicentennial celebration.

IFENG's article of incorporations define its activities in three categories1): investigations
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in 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) contracted investigations (investigations driven by commissions or subventions byother 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 42 projects were implemented in FY2020, including one continued from thepreceding year (one of which has already been closed financially) and one to be continued
in the next year. Forty-one were thus concluded within the fiscal year and considered in
the account settlement.

The current contract-based projects include 18 for N1, 21 for P1 and 3 for P2. The project
names are specified in the tables in the subsequent sections.

(1) Contracted investigations
The 38 F1 and P1 projects completed in FY2020 included 24 contracts with publicinstitutions and 14 with private companies or foundations. Details are given for
subventionary and commissioned investigations3) respectively.

Three projects were supported by the private sector (2 by Watanabe Memorial Foundation
for the Advancement of New Technology, 1 by Toyota Foundation), one was subsidized
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by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research ("Kakenhi", Japan Society for the Promotionof Science) (joint investigations), and one by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; theremaining 33 were commissioned projects.
The commissions came from seven governmental agencies for 13 projects (comparedwith 13 in the preceding year, the same hereinafter), four government-run institutions for
7 (8), two universities and an academic institute for 3 (3), four business companies for 8(12), and private institutions for 2. The commissioning government agencies included theCabinet Office; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; the Ministry of Education,Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Agency for Cultural Affairs; the Ministryof Health, Labor and Welfare; the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; and theMinistry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Several National Research andDevelopment Agencies (including Japan Science Technology Agency) and Independent
Administrative Agencies, along with two national universities and an inter-university
research institute, have also commissioned research works to IFENG. A subventionary
project supported by a private institution is to be continued to the next year.

In terms of the business categories, 18 projects belong to nonprofit activities and 21 forprofit activities, as shown in the following table.

(2) Independent investigations(i) Independent nonprofit investigations (N2)
The self-financed nonprofit independent investigations include preparatory works forsupporting contracted projects (original concepts) and studies to expand researchers’
knowledge. No activity in FY2020 belonged to this category.

(ii) Independent for-profit investigations (F2)
The independent for-profit investigations in 2020 included three projects (consulting) to
support business companies' activities related to science and technology based on
IFENG’s existing knowledge.

3(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 byinviting 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. This activity has been suspended since 2019 due to renewal
works of the Institute’s website.

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

(ii) For-profit interaction with the public (F3)Support of research activities related to future engineering by IFENG members wascontinued.

(4) International exchange
President Ryo Hirasawa gave an online lecture “Rise of Korean science and technology
and its spread to Asian development countries” in the Symposium Commemorating theCentennial of Dr. Choe Hyung-sup in Seoul, November 2, 2020.

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

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