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PART Recent Trends and Developments in Government Policies in Education, Science and Culture

Now that our society is becoming more information oriented, the training of experts playing a leading role in a highly information oriented society in the future has become a very important issue. In recent years, upper secondary school courses related to information, such "information technology" courses and "information processing" courses, have been rapidly increasing. In response to the growing demand for high-level information engineers and researchers as a result of the advancement of science and technology and the trend of industry being highly information oriented, the number of courses specializing in information science, as well as the number of places for entrants to these courses, has been rapidly increasing in universities, junior colleges, colleges of technology and special training schools (advanced courses).

In its interim report published in June 1988 on manpower demands in the field of information technology, a Committee on Information Issues, part of the Ministry's Headquarters for the Implementation of Educational Reform. Estimated that the total demand for the number of information engineers would be 2.3 million to 3 million by the year 2000, and that institutions of formal education would be required to strive to develop 1.5 million to 2.25 million out of this total.

In the light of the conclusion presented in this interim report, the Ministry has been carrying out a number of measures, including the creation of courses related to information science at more national institutions, the creation of a Hokuriku Graduate University of Advanced Science and Technology, which is to stress education and research related to information science, and the provision of more equipment for information processing at institutions of higher education.