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In order to thoroughly implement ethics and to heighten awareness of social responsibility among people involved in science and technology, it is necessary not only to rely on the efforts of such individuals, but also to tackle it systematically as an issue of the country as a whole.

In order to achieve them, it is important to carry out active initiatives according to the respective roles of central government, local government, businesses, workers and the general public through ethics education and safety education in school education and business education, thereby improving the awareness of ethics and safety in society as a whole.

For example, in private companies engaged in research and development, about a half in the manufacturing industry have established internal standards for the ethics of researchers and engineers ( Fig. 17 ). In the future, in addition to promoting the development of such ethics regulations, methods to function the regulations and ethics education for engineers should be expanded.

Fig. 17: Policies Adopted by Private Companies to Heighten the Ethical Values of Researchers and Engineers

Initiatives are currently being promoted to build an accreditation system for engineers that guarantees receiving a certain level of education, including engineering ethics, in universities and other higher level institutes. It is expected that ethics education for engineers will be enhanced through these activities.

Furthermore, improvements are to be made to the consulting engineers system according to the Law for Consulting Engineers. As a part of those improvements, as a responsibility of people involved in technology, an awareness of public safety and conservation of the environment is the precondition for consulting engineers' activities as responsibility for society.