Inter-Organizational Cooperation between Technical Societies and Industries in Japan

With respect to the increasing social demands on environmental protection and technological advancement, collaboration between universities, technical societies, industrial associations and governmental agencies are become more and more important in recent years. Particularly during the last decade, interdisciplinary and inter-industrial cooperation appeared to be significant for making Japanese industries more global and effective to cope with those social requirements whereas the individual companies could not achieve comprehensive solutions. The author will review the current movements on the inter-organizational cooperation activities and future directions in Japan.