Obtaining buy-in from government was difficult. Is a pragmatic program - uses a medley of methods as appropriate at any point in time. Also draws from the findings and experiences of other international efforts. For example, draws upon the findings from the Japanese, German, and other foresighting efforts rather than repeating them in Australia. Develop consensus on fields and technologies essential to Japan Represents a comprehensive, systematic, and detailed look at science and technology trends - the most detailed and specific of all efforts studied.
Consensus forming aspects are important, but more visible emphasis is on use in planning.
Conducts evaluations of their past efforts, and rates the accuracy of previous results. Originally, did not focus on degree of implementation of results. Will be looking at this more and more in future. Focus is science and technology. Did this in part to leverage limited resources, in part to minimize acceptance issues, in part to allow cross-country evaluation.