Figure II-10-2-2	Major Initiatives for FY2014 by Incorporated Administrative Agencies under MLIT with a Primary Focus on Research
Incorporated Administrative Agency	Summary
Public Works Research Institute	Conducted research and development to contribute to the efficient creation of quality social capital and the development of Hokkaido such as “Research on prevention, mitigation, and early recovery from more intensified and diverse natural disasters”, “Research on strategic maintenance and management of social capital stocks, and “Research on innovative technology for greener social infrastructure”.
Building Research Institute	Conducted research and development on technologies related to housing, building, and urban planning such as “Research and development related to the promotion of low-carbon housing, building, and cities”, and “Research and development on technology to improve the safety of buildings against earthquakes, etc.”
National Traffic Safety and Environment Laboratory	Conducted test research related to the safety assurance of land transport and environment preservation, technical standards conformity assessment of automobiles, and technical evaluations related to recalls, including “Promoting the development and commercialization of next generation heavy vehicles” and “Survey on the requirement for communication between a pedestrian and a vehicle.”
National Maritime Research Institute	Conducted research on ensuring the safety of marine transport, preservation of marine environment, marine development and advanced marine transport including, “Research for advanced analysis technology for high precision reproduction of marine accident occurrence conditions”, “Research on green evolution of ships that contribute to revolutionary technology to reduce the environmental burden”, and “Research on advancing and developing a safety evaluation method on renewable marine energy production systems”.
Port and Airport Research Institute	Conducted research and development to contribute to the formation of a safe and secure society, the maintenance and creation of excellent environment in coastal areas, and the creation of an energetic economic society including “Research on community protection from large scale earthquake and tsunami”, “conservation and recovery of ecological system along coastal areas and CO₂ absorption, and “Environmental improvement of enclosed coastal seas”, and “Research on strategic maintenance and management of ports and harbors and airport facilities”.
Electronic Navigation Research Institute	Implemented research and development for advancing air traffic management systems such as “Expanding the capacity of airways”, “Expanding the processing capacity of congested airports”, and “Safety and technology that connects air and land”.

## (3) Promoting research and development technologies of construction, traffic and transportation fields

Of the important research issues concerning construction technology, issues that are especially urgent and involve a wide range of fields are taken up with the governmental departments taking the lead with the coordination of industry, academia and government to comprehensively and organizationally implement research for the “comprehensive technology development projects” where in FY2014, research and development was conducted for a total of five issues including the “Development of function continuity technology for the disaster site buildings.”

Also, for the traffic and transportation fields, technological research and development that contributes to ensuring safety, improving convenience, and protecting the environment are being promoted efficiently and effectively with the coordination of industry, academia and government and in FY2014 the “Promotion of comprehensive technology development for advanced control and management systems in the field of transport” is being undertaken.

## (4) Supporting Private Sector Technological Research and Development

To promote private sector investments in research and development, support is given through preferential tax measures for experiment and research expenses.

## (5) Promoting Public Invitation Type Research and Development Subsidy Systems

To promote technological innovation in the construction sector, for the “Construction Technology Research and Development Subsidy Program” that invites the public to make proposals for technological research and development that contribute to the sophistication and strengthening of international competitiveness of construction technology under MLIT’s authority as well as the further promotion of research and development conducted by MLIT, two types of public invitations are made, public invitations for technology development that solves policy issues (aiming to implement in 2-3 years) and public invitations for technology development in response to earthquakes (aiming to implement in 1-2 years), and 6 new issues were adopted and 11 ongoing issues were selected in FY2014.

In regards to the traffic and transportation field, under the “Traffic and Transportation Technology Development Promotion System,” which broadly mobilizes the collective knowledge of the Industry, Government and Academia with an emphasis on conducting the truly necessary fundamental research for the country, public offering for 5 research topics of “Aging measures, prior disaster prevention, disaster mitigation measures, and adequate operation, maintenance and update in transportation infrastructure” etc. was made with 2 new issues were adopted and 5 ongoing issues were selected in FY2014.