Research results (in English only)

[ index ]

*Research results in Japanese are here.

General Research Group

The objective of this research is to construct a universal knowledge system by integrating the knowledge of individual safety-related research areas, as well as to design and manage the entire program. This includes structuralization and visualization of knowledge, deliberation on the concepts of safety and security, and complementary research into malpractice prevention and food safety. The group will also develop and propose detailed methodologies for designing of science and technology for society. The design of science and technology for society consists of the following processes: (1) Localization of problems (2) Conception of solutions for problems (3) Prediction of societal changes and effects following application of the solutions to society (4) Evaluation of the results of the predictions based on various value criteria

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:77kb]

Interactive Knowledge Process Research Group

This research group is working on the development of a communications infrastructure to support risk communication. A communications infrastructure is an essential tool for making people’s lives livable in today’s ever more complex and multitudinous society. The group has the objectives of providing support for mutual understanding, knowledge sharing, and consensus-building for risk communication, and is currently developing a high-density interactive SPOC communication system that uses nonverbal communication modes, such as gestures, facial expressions, and animations and sounds. The group intends to develop SPOC-based applications for demonstration of facts, sharing of reality, and decision making support.

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:80kb]

Failure Study Research Group

The objective of failure studies is to create a system that allows for the reusing of knowledge gained through failure. This research group is currently designing and performing trial runs of an information technology based system for effectively imprinting knowledge of failure within individuals who want to avoid failure. However, a particular individual’s success in comprehending the knowledge and taking appropriate actions to avoid failure is determined by the social atmosphere surrounding that individual, which is influenced by various factors, such as laws, insurance, mass media, and ethics and morals. Therefore, the objective will not be achieved if a focus is placed on conventional engineered technologies for hazard avoidance alone, indicating the significance of pursuing integrated scientific and humanistic studies that is, science and technology for society.

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:31kb]

Socio-psychology Research Group

The objective of this research group is to develop a “corporate decision-making mechanism certification system” for use in assessment and verification of whether the decision-making mechanism of an organization attaches importance to safety. The group is also aiming at development of a “corporate decision-making mechanism optimization program”, i.e., comprehensive program including education and training, for use in cases in which the violation prevention systems for decision- making mechanisms are inadequate. The group will clarify the determinants related to violative decision making as a part of the fundamental knowledge required to create such system programs.

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:84kb]

Legal Research Group

The safety-related aspects of the legal system can be regarded as a classic example of issue of science and technology for society; however, the various legal systems in place for ensuring safety, which are currently drawing significant attention, traditionally have been dealt with in a fragmented manner as opposed to a systematic manner. Questions have also been raised as to whether these systems are truly responsive to developments in science and technology and whether they are doing an adequate job of maintaining the trust of the populace. The objective of this research is to clarify and reconstruct the basic methods applicable to the design of legal systems for safety through cross-sectional analysis of the various legal systems for ensuring safety in place in various areas related to traffic safety, medical safety, food and drug safety, nuclear safety, and disaster prevention in cooperation with the researchers in engineering and medical research related areas of the Mission-Oriented Research Program.

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:72kb]

Risk Management Research Group

The risks associated with life in modern society take many various forms, such as global environmental problems, medical issues, food safety, largescale accidents, terrorism, natural disasters, and security issues associated with the information and social infrastructures. However, the task of improving the safety and security of society intrinsically requires a complex structure, since the implementation of risk management occurs through complex interactions among the national government, local government, private enterprise, the populace, NPOs, and other bodies,. The objectives of this research group are to clarify the interactions among the different bodies and to develop risk management concepts appropriate for solving various safety-related social issues, taking into consideration the maintenance of fairness and efficiency in society. Thus, the group aims to establish risk management for the entire society -“public risk management”

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:36kb]

Nuclear Safety I Research Group

The problems surrounding nuclear safety today go beyond the reach of traditional safety engineering, increasing in complexity and diversity, and precise assessments of nuclear safety systems, taking into consideration not only sharing of relevant knowledge and consensus-building among society and technological safety, but social safety as well. The objectives of this research include the following: establishment of a basis for sharing relevant knowledge covering the full spectrum of concepts related to nuclear safety, development of technologies for validation of systematic risk management and social programs, proposal of desirable methods of risk communication concerning nuclear energy, thereby making contributions toward solving issues in science and technology for society.

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:70kb]

Nuclear Safety II Research Group

The rapid development and change in production and distribution systems and information technologies highly integrates various systems comprising society and strongly couple each others. Even an event, having been thought to be confined within a single system, very rapidly propagates and causes impacts on others. How can we ensure safety of the technological system in such a situation? We think that the keys to this question are innovative information system enabling actors to share meanings, functional structure and boundaries for safe operation behind the phenomena. Toward this goal, this research group is conducting studies to develop the information system concepts applicable to domains such as system operation, management in organization and information exchange in public, by doing experimental evaluation works on a nuclear reactor simulator and field studies.

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:76kb]

Chemical Process Safety Research Group

The general consensus on the chemical industry is that it is dangerous and unsafe. However, chemical products are found in clothing, drugs, cosmetics, daily necessities, building materials, etc., and as such are indispensable in daily life. It is therefore desirable that the chemical industry continue to develop as an industry that has earned society’s trust, and to do so it naturally must maintain that trust. Safety management in the chemical industry is not easily grasped by society in general, and thus has the potential to cause apprehension among people, requiring an easily comprehensible state of safety control and tools that allow easy and comprehensible responses to the public’s anxieties and questions. The group is working on research aimed at a safety consensus-building system as the means to achieve this goal. A conceptual diagram of this system is shown at right.

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:58kb]

Seismic Disaster Prevention Research Group

Expansion of the disaster prevention capabilities of today’s ever more advanced and complex cities is essential for the realization of safety and security in our lives. To ascertain the behavior of an entire city during an earthquake precisely and effectively, reliable information as to “what could happen during a disaster” and “what to do to forestall it” must be provided. The Seismic Disaster Prevention Research Group is developing the technologies that will enable the performance of a wide range of simulations, from a single house to an entire city, and visual demonstration of the results, and intends to make proposals for policies that mandate the elimination of existing low earthquake- resistant structures and for frameworks for system design, promotion of understanding and decision-making in terms of making earthquakeresistant retrofitting and purchasing earthquake insurance, quantification of the social and economic damage from seismic disasters, and disaster prevention education developed through science and technology for society.

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:129kb]

Traffic Safety Research Group

To solve various problems related to traffic safety is one of the most urgent and important tasks for realizing the safe and secure society of all over the world. Then the Traffic Safety Research Group is tackling the following topics towards the safer and more reliable traffic systems: (1) to develop a traffic accident database based on Geographic Information System (GIS), which can present the accident's cause and mechanism to the general public as clearly as possible; (2) to survey the traffic safety policy of other counties in order to evaluate the similarity with and the difference from Japan; and (3) to develop the evaluation system for traffic safety policies and finally to propose the future direction of traffic safety policy of Japan.

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:60kb]

Medical Safety Research Group

The health care system as we know it today has reached a significant turning point with the increase of public needs for better medical care and the arrival of tailor-made medical technologies made possible by advances in genomic research. The objective of this research is to find a means of improving the quality of the medical care provided to individuals, which forms the core of medical safety, through application of the results of genomic medical studies to clinical practice, systematization of methods for the proper management and analysis of clinical information and use of the results, and utilization of the results in the actual clinical setting. Researchers from the fields of medicine, engineering, and law perform will research using cuttingedge information processing technologies, as they attempt to develop a process for providing the achievements to society as science and technology for society.

◆ Interim evaluation report [PDF:53kb]

Safety of Foods （Part of General Research Group）

In recent years, food-related issues have become increasingly more conspicuous in developed countries. This holds true for Japan as well, where foodrelated issues have been drawing attention as a socially significant topic, particularly since the arrival of BSE. However, these issues are not merely the subjects of scientific analysis; there can be no solutions to these issues unless they are studied with their cultural background in focus and through systematic analysis. This research is conducted in the following two directions: (1)“maintenance of a global perspective”, which entails analysis of issues from scientific, technological, systematic, and social perspectives, and (2)“evaluation of individual issues”: (2a) Contribution of comments and ideas concerning specific incidents for the media (benefit the public via risk communication) (2b)Study of the validity and effectiveness of problem- solving methods, including analysis and evaluation of traceability system, the Food Safety Commission and other organizations