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There are several background factors that necessitate the clarification of what is achievable with science and technology.

The first is the diverse and complex needs to which science and technology must now respond. Areas of science and technology such as the life sciences and information and telecommunications have the potential for responding to various needs arising from a broad range of problems. At the same time, the opportunity to use science and technology skillfully to solve various current and future problems must not be missed. Moreover, science and technology policy must be promoted with an outlook broad enough to also include economic, environmental and various other policy areas.

Second, now that the importance of science and technology policy has been recognized, science and technology are receiving priority budget allocations, and the overall level of science and technology has been raised, further efforts must now be made to identify the scientific and technological issues that the Japanese nation must now address, and to consentrate the priority investment of budgetary and other resources.

Third is to review those issues that require national attention and the needs to which science and technology must respond in order to set plain goals as to what can be done using science and technology with respect to those issues and needs. When this is done, scientists and engineers will be constantly aware of what must be done, and the public will understand what science and technology are doing better than before, thereby bolstering public support for the promotion of science and technology. In short, public accountability will be assured.

The setting of goals necessitates clearly identifying the needs to which science and technology must respond. This, in turn, requires the users of science and technology to actively state their own intentions, not just through public opinion surveys, but also through efforts to solicit their opinions and other innovations, such as providing the opportunity for the public to express its opinions directly during the goal-setting process. As for the industrial needs to which science and technology are expected to respond, a distinction must be made between needs to which industry can respond itself and those needs where a national response is required, such as promoting the process whereby R&D achievements are applied to the creation of new products and services.

Upon doing so, what is achievable with science and technology must be expressed with plain goals set upon with roles, among other factors. This process requires the involvement of users, persons engaged in R&D, and social and cultural science specialists.

Examples of plain goals that state what is achievable with science and technology can be found in the U. S. National Information Infrastructure (NII) concept. The goal of NII is to increase industrial competitiveness and improve education, health care and government services by increasing investment in the nation's information infrastructure, which is defined to encompass networks, technological ability, regulation, privacy and other related issues. Vice President Gore also proposed the construction of a worldwide information and telecommunications infrastructure. The U.S. has since announced the Next Generation Internet initiative (1996), the 21st Center Information Technology Initiative (1999), and other programs having the stated goals of making the U.S. a world leader in computers and telecommunications, creating jobs in high-tech sectors, and creating new industries. Other goals are to promote R&D based on computer simulation by developing supercomputers 100 times faster than today's supercomputers; to promote long-term basic research, and to pursue research in areas related to the information revolution affecting to the socioeconomy.

Similar examples can also be found in the history of American science and technology policy, such as President Bush's "Decade of the Brain," the Nixon Administration's "fight against cancer," and the Kennedy Administration's drive to put a man on the moon.