### 8. Boosting productivity with ICT

## (1) Assistance for the creation and growth of ICT ventures

As global competition intensifies, ICT venture companies that create new businesses with cutting-edge and innovative technologies and business models are expected to be the innovators that will further develop Japan's ICT industry. To this end, MIC, in cooperation with related ministries and agencies, takes steps to assist the creation and growth of ICT ventures in such areas as personnel hiring and training and information provision.

## (2) Assistance through the Small Business Innovation Research program

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program aims to promote new business activities by SMEs. The program attempts to broaden the opportunities for SMEs to participate in national R&D projects and helps SMEs commercialize the resulting R&D outcomes from these projects. Seven ministries, including MIC, have earmarked specific subsidies for the program.

## Section 7 Promoting ICT Research and Development

### 1. Promoting research and development strategies

The Information and Communications Council delivered an interim report, completed in July 2015, recommending priority R&D fields and topics, as well as a policy on promoting them, that the central government and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) should pursue. Based on the interim report, MIC decided to move ahead with R&D measures starting in FY 2016. In addition, the IoT Acceleration Consortium was set up in October 2015 as an industry-government-academia IoT promotion framework. Technology Development Working Group (Smart IoT Acceleration Forum), established under the Consortium, is making efforts to promote the development, demonstration, and standardization of IoT technologies.

### 2. Enhancing research and development to realize cutting-edge ICT in all parts of society

## (1) Establishment and demonstration of common IoT platform technologies

MIC decided to conduct research and development, starting in FY 2016, on common platform technologies, such as technologies to quickly and efficiently connect massive numbers of IoT devices and technologies to consolidate IoT devices and services with different wireless standards and to connect and accommodate them in networks efficiently and securely. Also, MIC will conduct state-of-the-art pilot projects under industry-government-academia promotion frameworks and will enhance efforts toward international standardization of common IoT platform technologies in cooperation with smart city and other demonstration projects in Europe and the United States.

## (2) Promoting research and development and pilot programs of autonomous mobility systems (autonomous driving and autonomous control technologies)

One of MIC's aims is the early implementation and widespread adoption of autonomous mobility systems in society. Therefore, MIC decided to promote, starting in FY 2016, unified R&D and public demonstrations of technologies that make communications networks more accurate and reliable and technologies that update and distribute advanced map databases with high efficiency.

## (3) Promoting research and development into next-generation optical network technologies

NICT is researching and developing the base technologies to make possible fast, high-capacity, low-power networks (all-optical networks) with all signal transmissions and conversions done optically.

For its part, MIC is engaged in research and development laying the groundwork for products and markets relying on those base technologies, created through NICT research and development, with early commercialization potential.

## (4) Promoting research and development and pilot programs of multilingual voice-based translation technology

MIC, under a five-year plan that began in FY 2015, is working to implement multilingual voice-based translation systems. This project necessitates other initiatives, such as research and development into noise-reduction technologies so that conversations can be recognized correctly in noisy environments. The performance of such technologies must be evaluated in real-world settings such as hospitals, commercial establishments, trains, and taxis.

## (5) Research aiming to realize next-generation artificial intelligence

NICT’s Universal Communications Research Institute is mainly working on research and development of technologies to analyze big data and multilingual voice-based translation technologies. NICT’s Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet) is working to elucidate brain mechanisms and conducting research and development into network control technologies that make use of these mechanisms and into technologies to measure brain functions.