1 / 6

Approaches to Societal Impacts of Nanotechnologies in Japan

Approaches to Societal Impacts of Nanotechnologies in Japan. Junko Nakanishi Director of CRM, AIST. CRM: Research Center for Chemical Risk Management AIST: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The Numbers of Nanotech related Companies by Sector.

josie
Download Presentation

Approaches to Societal Impacts of Nanotechnologies in Japan

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Approaches to Societal Impacts of Nanotechnologies in Japan Junko Nakanishi Director of CRM, AIST CRM: Research Center for Chemical Risk Management AIST: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

  2. The Numbers of Nanotech related Companies by Sector Total: 586 companies Biotech Others 4% 9% Environment & Materials Energy Applications 19% 6% Metrology 18% IT & Electronics Applications 17% Superfine Processing 27% More than 60% of 586 companies invest less than $ 1 million, only 8% invest more than $ 10 million. Source: NEDO “Study on Regional Activities Related to Nanotechnology”(August, 2004)

  3. very negative negative somewhat negative neutral somewhat positive positive very positive 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Public Image of Nanotechnology in Japan （March 2005） A public opinion survey was conducted, where respondents were selected randomly from the Internet Consumer Panel, n=1281. A. Kishimoto (AIST-CRM)

  4. Points of Concern 1. Toxic effects due to their nanoscale size alone 2. The greater the unknown aspect of a technology, the more the public tends to perceive the risk associated with the technology (Slovic et al.)

  5. Extensive Discussions for three months 1 Main Committee and 2 WGs One WG specifically focused on Social Impact Issues METI’s Study Report (March 2005) Nanotechnology Policy Study Committee Chair : Dr. Teruo Kishi, NIMS Basic Policy WG Chair : Dr. Hiroshi Yokoyama, AIST Social Impact Analysis WG Chair: Dr. Junko Nakanishi, AIST NIMS: National Institute for Materials Science, Japan AIST: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

  6. Key Conclusionson Societal Impacts Issues • A forum should be established to share understandings among various interest groups on societal impacts • Adaptation and /or application of the existing procedures for assessing and regulating chemicals should be considered for the present, due to lack of scientific evidence of toxicity associated with nanoscale size alone. • Scientific research of toxicity should be deepend. • Prior to toxicity tests, physical and chemical properties of the test materials should be confirmed (size, surface area, shape and impurities) • 4.Screening level tests, mainly in vitro tests, should be undertaken, followed by more detailed tests as necessary. • 5. Japan should actively participate and take a leadership role in the related international standardization activities. Thank you for your attention

More Related