Message from the Chairman

　As Japan's largest public R&D management organization, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) undertakes technology development and demonstration activities to address energy and global environment issues and consolidate Japan's industrial technologies by integrating the combined efforts of industry, academia and government.

　NEDO's contribution to energy technology, which it has focused on since its foundation in 1980, has been widely recognized in the establishment of a world leading infrastructure for energy and energy conservation technologies, including photovoltaic power generation and fuel cells. As energy demand continues to grow significantly because of the development of emerging countries and public awareness regarding energy security and greater safety has increased in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake last year, NEDO is determined to promote technology development to further improve efficiency, and it is pursuing cost reduction of renewable energy to eventually pave the way for supplying such energy for a wide variety of social needs.

　With advances in information technology and electricity storage technology, potential applications for new technologies have expanded rapidly in recent years. For example, smart grid networks and energy management systems (EMS) are now capable of controlling and managing a variety of energy demand conditions, thereby improving energy efficiency throughout an entire society. NEDO, in cooperation with relevant authorities, is actively promoting demonstration projects in order to realize a smart community social system which integrates such new technologies.

　Also, in the field of industrial technology, the significance of innovation is growing in order to address such issues as Japan's economic recovery, sustainable development, an aging population and resource constraints. NEDO is therefore promoting the development of industrial technologies with a mid- to long-term viewpoint by working toward reduced consumption of rare metals and rare earth materials, development of alternative technologies in collaboration with other countries, and coordination of the combined efforts of industry and academia in order to develop medical and welfare equipment. In addition to such efforts, NEDO is developing, applying and
disseminating important new technologies for materials, biotechnology and machinery systems by focusing on the growth areas of green innovation and life innovation included in the government's New Growth Strategy and Science and Technology Basic Plan.

　In response to the recent increase in open and global innovation, NEDO is promoting international demonstration projects in Europe, the U.S. and Asian countries that aim at establishment of world standard technology as well as market development by drawing on established research networks in collaboration with foreign governments and relevant organizations. Through these activities, NEDO believes that Japan's advanced smart community, water resource management, recycling and other technologies can be disseminated worldwide, leading not only to the strengthening of Japan's global competitiveness and support for system exports but also contributing to the resolution of international environmental and social issues.

　In conjunction with these efforts, NEDO intends to take steady steps to acquire credits through the Kyoto Mechanisms based on Japan's energy and environmental technologies in order to contribute to the fulfillment of Japan's Kyoto Protocol obligation and to support sustainable development of emerging countries, where a rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions is expected.

　NEDO is addressing global social issues such as energy challenges, resource constraints and other issues by making full use of Japan's technologies. We have renewed our commitment to addressing future challenges by continually assessing economic and social needs as well as global trends and then pursuing the creation of new social systems through innovative technology development. At the same time, NEDO is continuing to carry out its original mission of coordinating the efforts of industry, academia and government.

May 2012