4.Strategically promoting international activities

 From now, Japan needs to not only stay with the perspective of merely globalizing the activities of S＆T, but to implement them strategically. In so doing, the government will make efforts towards achieving the following objectives while using the approaches of competition and harmonization, cooperation and support according to the condition of the counterparts based on sufficient research and analysis of global trends.

• Utilize Japan’s S＆T abilities to respond to the solving of international challenges, and the international imperatives and expectations from other countries to raise the trust towards Japan.
• Contribute to formulating international standards and rules on S＆T through Japan’s initiatives.
• As well as cultivating Japan’s researchers as world-class human resources, strengthen Japan’s S＆T abilities by improving the diversity of research and standards of research through accepting outstanding foreign researchers.

（1）Systematic efforts of international activities

 With regards to the bilateral and multilateral frameworks in the international cooperative activities of S＆T, the government will carry out systematic efforts for international activities of S＆T, while keeping in mind the existence of mutual complementarities of S＆T activities and common challenges between Japan and our counterparts

 Among those undertakings are：
 （1） Forming of a multilayered network （government, research institutions, academic societies, researchers）, （2） Extracting of common challenges that must be worked on jointly including Japan, and the implementation of R＆D and technological development for solving such challenges （3） Promotion of the creation of a seed bed of new international cooperation. In addition, the government will work on developing human resources that will lead in future international activities.

（2） Cooperating with Asian nations

 As well as continuing to improve the prior international frameworks, and cooperation and collaborations with European nations and the United States of America, the government will strengthen the ties of S＆T with Asian nations to fulfill the role that is expected of Japan from both inside and outside the country, in view of international situations, i.e., the geographical and environmental accessibility, the rapid improvement of the S＆T standards, and the increasing closeness of economic relations. For this reason, the government will strengthen the collaboration of S＆T. As such, the government will implement a policy dialogue called “Asian Region S＆T Ministerial Summit” （tentative name） at a high level including ministers involved in S＆T policies with Asian nations, based on the existing government-to-government dialogue and interaction by researchers.

  In parallel with this dialogue, the government will strengthen the S＆T community with Asian nations through network formation and responses for common challenges in the Asian region by promoting interaction with researchers from Asian nations.

（3） Promoting general development for reinforcing international activities, and acceptance of talented foreign researchers

 In order to forcefully promote international activities, the government will strengthen the infrastructure that supports such activities, including the reinforcement of the administrative system that leads the international activities in universities and public research institutions, the effective promotion of overseas base activities of relevant organizations and the promotion of collaborations, and the development of the systems that systematically collect and analyze overseas S＆T trends. In addition, in order to improve the international ratings and visibility of Japan’s S＆T activities, the government will support the active transmitting of information on research results, researchers and research institutions overseas, mainly for overseas centers, and the forming of the network of officials including those with research experience in Japan. Moreover, the government will continue to develop and improve the Tsukuba Science City and the Kansai Science City as international R＆T centers open to all.

 In order to promote the acceptance of foreign researchers and expand their activities, the government will further promote necessary reviews and operational development on the future of immigration control systems and visa issuance. Specifically, the government will proceed with efforts for the extension of period of stay for foreign researchers, the relaxation of restrictions on permission of permanent residence, the relaxation of restrictions on issuance of short term stay via with multiple-exit, and the simplification and acceleration of various procedures, and put forward suggestions on the issuance of APEC business travel cards （ABTC） to researchers at APEC related meetings.