of information provision framework has been promoted under the coalition/cooperation of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Ministry of the Environment, and the “Environmental Education/Environmental Learning Database” has been publicized on the website.

Where environmental conservation efforts by local governments and businesses such as the formulation of environmental conservation plans and environmental measuring are concerned, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has been giving the title of “professional engineer (environmental category)” to competent engineers who have passed the professional engineer examinations and had been registered based on the Professional Engineer Act (Act No. 25 of 1983), and has been promoting the utilization of the title.

The number of registered professional engineers (environmental category) is 970, as of the end of December, 2008.

## (5) Implementation of research and promotion of science and technology

Research on 3Rs technology was selected as one of the research subjects to be handled specifically during the following five years in the environmental field, in the “Field-Specific Promotional Strategy” decided by the Council for Science and Technology Policy in March 2006, based on the 3rd Term of the Science and Technology Basic Plan decided by the Cabinet in March 2006. Also, the Central Environment Council discussed “the desirable state of the strategy for intensively promoting environmental studies and environmental technology development”, summarized the Central Environment Council report clarifying the “emphasized fields” such as the field of “the establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society”, formulated the “Enforcement Policy of the Promotion Strategy for Environmental Research and Environmental Technology Development” in March 2007, and has been following up such efforts every year. In addition, alternative materials and recovery technology of rare metals had been selected as countermeasure technology for rare resources, in the “Strategy for Innovative Technology” decided by the Council for Science and Technology Policy in May 2008.

Where grant-in-aid scientific research such as those for waste treatment are concerned, tasks were widely sought utilizing the competitive research fund, and 87 research projects and 5 technology development projects were implemented in FY 2009.

As for research projects, research/technology development in Asia and eventually in the international society concerning the 3Rs have been promoted, and in order to contribute to the establishment of an international 3Rs, great emphasis was placed on researches for solving the various problems surrounding the waste issue that would also contribute to the establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society, namely "Research for Promoting the 3Rs" "Research for Promoting the Utilization of Waste Biomass" "Combined Social-Scientific Research Toward the Establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society" "Research Concerning Waste Management Technology for Safety and Security, Such as the Solution of the Asbestos Issue" and "Research Concerning the Solution of Driftwood and Drift-waste Issues", along with establishing a "Special Category for 3Rs Initiatives".

As for technology development projects, great emphasis was placed on themes such as “Development of Waste Biomass Utilization Technology” and “Development of Technology concerning the Detoxification of Asbestos Waste”, with the aim to develop technologies that will influence the next generation, such as waste treatment technology.

Also, where research and development expenses for pollution prevention from among other research and development expenses for global environmental conservation are concerned, “Research to Contribute to the Establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society” continued to be among the items requiring special enhancement on the previous fiscal year, and research and development for five issues such as the development of waste treatment/reuse technologies was implemented.

Also, efforts were made by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to establish a biomass utilization model for implementing comprehensive utilization of biomass as fuel and material according to their regional characteristics, along with developing the technology for producing low-cost high efficiency bio fuel and the technology for utilizing biomass as materials, in order to promote the utilization of organic resources such as wood waste, livestock manure or waste edible oil as biomass.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have been collaborating to promote the “Element Strategy/ Rare Metal Substitute Materials Development Project”. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is promoting research development for creating new materials, by substituting rare elements with more common elements, from the viewpoint of studying the roles of elements that determine the characteristics/functions of substances/materials and utilizing them, in the “Element Strategy Project”.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry through the “Rare Metal Substitute Materials Development Project” has launched technology development toward substituting/reducing usage of indium for transparent electrodes used in liquid crystal panels, dysprosium for rare-earth magnets, and tungsten for carbide tools.

Also, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is promoting the development of photocatalysts that obtain hydrogen by dissolving water using sunlight, and of solid acid catalysts that dissolve non-edible parts of plants such as cellulose, converting them into sugar.

In addition, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has formulated a research and development project where multiple technology developments and related policies toward their realization are bundled together as technology development strategies, and has been implementing research and development of technology for practical application to contribute to the promotion of the 3Rs in the field of the environment - 3Rs within the project, and in FY 2008, has conducted technology development for making high strength building materials, for recycling rare metals, and for resource conservation.