The Science Council of Japan (SCJ) holds an international conference every year on a theme in which “Science and Technology for Sustainability” are the keywords. Each conference has been attended by leading researchers in a wide range of fields from countries around the world, representatives of national science academies, and other members of the international scientific community, who from a variety of angles have discussed and sought solutions for global issues affecting the realization of a sustainable society.

Over the past three years the subjects of the conferences have been “Energy and Sustainability Science” (2003), “Asian Megacities and Global Sustainability” (2004), and “Dynamism and Uncertainty in Asia” (2005), and important recommendations were included in the Conference Statement issued at the end of each conference. In addition, last year the “Special Symposium on National Innovation Systems” was held under the auspices of the SCJ, the Economic and Social Research Institute, the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy, and the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

This year's international conference is under the title “Global Innovation Ecosystem” and is being organized by the four bodies mentioned above. Among the various types of innovation, the discussions will focus in particular on science-based innovation, examining the process of converting scientific knowledge into socioeconomic value and the relationship of this with the building of a sustainable society. The other key focus of the discussion will be on the kinds of measures and frameworks necessary to make possible the building of a global ecosystem that will expedite science-based innovation on a global scale.

The conference will be held over a period of two days. In addition, after investigating the issues from the various perspectives essential for establishing an ecosystem, such as the economic/social/industrial, the human resource/educational, and the scientific and technological aspects, the conference will aim to issue comprehensive policy recommendations based on exhaustive discussion.

From the conference venue in Kyoto, a major wellspring of Japanese innovation, we will transmit to the world our view of what should be done to build a global innovation ecosystem for the realization of a sustainable society.

I fully expect that both intense discussions by professionals from a diversity of countries and in a diversity of fields, and the conclusions to which those discussions lead, will be superlative.