The , or AIST, is a Japanese research facility headquartered in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, and most of the workforce is located in

Tsukuba Science City is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. As of January 1, 2024, the city had an estimated population of 256,526 in 121,001 households and a population density of 900 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 wa ...

, Ibaraki, and in several cities throughout Japan. The institute is managed to integrate scientific and engineering knowledge to address socio-economic needs. It became a newly designed legal body of

Independent Administrative Institution An , or Independent Administrative Institution, is a type of legal corporation formulated by the Government of Japan under the Act on General Rules for Incorporated Administrative Agencies (Act no. 103 of 1999, revised in 2014). The independent age ...

in 2001, remaining under the

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry The , METI for short, is a ministry of the Government of Japan. It was created by the 2001 Central Government Reform when the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) merged with agencies from other ministries related to economic acti ...

History

In its present form AIST was established in 2001. However, its predecessor institutes have been operating since 1882. In 2015, it is running more than 40 researching institutes and several branches over Japan including International Metrology Cooperation Office.

Three missions of AIST

* Advanced Research by exploring broad spectra of research fields and integrating multidisciplinary subjects to promote innovation in versatile fields that strengthen the competitiveness of Japanese industries in the world market and create new industries. * Interdisciplinary and Cross-Disciplinary Research that enables planning long-range governmental policies by exploiting the current and future needs of society. * Basic Research that maintains and strengthens competitiveness of national science and technology by developing and maintaining high standards of scientific and engineering research under the sole responsibility of AIST.

Type-I and Type-II basic research

The institute attempts to use and integrate scientific and engineering knowledge that is fragmented into various disciplines to address versatile and highly complex socio-economic needs that change rapidly with time. AIST defines such research as Type-II Basic Research, which integrates multiple disciplines and creates methods for the use of integrated knowledge; traditional basic research is defined as Type-I Basic Research, which is the pursuit and discovery of novel rules, laws and principles that govern natural phenomena. AIST places its highest priority on the pursuit of complete research, "Full Research", ranging from Type-I Basic Research to the development of products by conducting intensive Type-II Basic Research. Each Unit of AIST places its highest priorities on establishing an integrated research system that enables researchers with different scientific backgrounds to participate in scenario-oriented research projects to address the needs of society.

Employees

The institute employs researchers of various backgrounds and levels of expertise who carry out research with respect to the three main mission of the institute. The number of employees are as follows: * Researchers: 2,288 :*Tenured researchers: 2,046 :*Fixed-term researchers: 242 * Administrative staffs: 661 * Total number of employees: 2,949 (as of April 1, 2012)

Geological Survey of Japan

The Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ) was created from geoscientific research units within AIST in 2001 to replace the old GSJ created in 1882.

Notable scientists

* Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, former President of AIST,

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

(1993–1997), Science Council of Japan (1997–2003) and

International Council for Science The International Council for Science (ICSU, after its former name, International Council of Scientific Unions) was an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the advancement of science. Its members ...

(ICSU) (1999–2002) * Jun Kondo, a famous researcher for the Kondo effect * Sumio Iijima, the discoverer of the

Carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with a diameter in the nanometre range ( nanoscale). They are one of the allotropes of carbon. Two broad classes of carbon nanotubes are recognized: * ''Single-walled carbon nanotubes'' (''S ...

* Yoshinori Tokura, famous for

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

experiments * Hiromichi Kataura, well known for his research in

carbon nanotubes A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with a diameter in the nanometre range (nanoscale). They are one of the allotropes of carbon. Two broad classes of carbon nanotubes are recognized: * ''Single-walled carbon nanotubes'' (''SWC ...

and for the Kataura plot

Products

* ''HRP-2 Promet'', a domestic general helper robot (under development) in joint Humanoid Robotics Project wit
Kawada Industries
* HRP-4C, a female humanoid robot. * Paro, a baby

harp seal The harp seal (''Pagophilus groenlandicus''), also known as the saddleback seal or Greenland seal, is a species of earless seal, or true seal, native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. Originally in the genus '' Phoca'' with a ...

robot for therapeutic use. * DeleGate, a multi-purpose application-level gateway / proxy server. * Spectral Database for Organic Compounds (SDBS), a free online searchable database containing Raman, EPR, FT-IR, EI-MS, ¹H-NMR and ¹³C-NMR spectra of ca 34,000 organic compounds. * Structure atlas of human genome

References

External links

AIST Web site

an

"Robotic helper coming soon" {{authority control Independent Administrative Institutions of Japan Research institutes in Japan Robotics organizations 2001 establishments in Japan