Work to Improve Quality of Life, Japan Urged

Japan, the world’s biggest exporter of high-technology goods, should channel more of its technological prowess into improving the quality of life, a government agency said today.

The Science and Technology Agency, in an annual policy statement, said science and technology should make a greater contribution to improving health and living standards and cleaning up the environment in Japan.

The paper, endorsed by the Cabinet today, sets out general principles that may influence government funding but does not make any specific recommendations.

“Until now, the goal of science and technology had been economic growth. This was seen to result in commercial products which improved society. But now the immediate goal is to improve the quality of life,” Yoshiki Kurihara, director of the research division of the agency’s Policy Bureau, said in an interview.

He said the report echoed other government agencies that have recently issued statements reflecting the frustrations of ordinary Japanese who, despite high incomes, complain about cramped living quarters, wearying commutes and polluted environments.

An agency poll of 1,000 people in June this year, for example, found that nearly 90% thought science and technology ought to contribute more to improving living standards.

The agency and some ministries have been urging greater government spending. Last year’s agency report and a Ministry of International Trade and Industry report in May outlining goals for the 1990s called on the government to double its share of research and development spending as a percentage of gross national product.

Japan’s total research and development outlays, including expenditure by the private sector, surpassed $79 billion in the year to March, 1989, second only to the United States. But MITI figures show the Japanese government spends only about 0.5% of GNP on research and development, against 1.2% in the United States and France.