Challenge of the affluent twenty-first century: A Japanese response

The Science and Technology Agency of the Japanese Government conducted a Delphi method forecast survey from June 1970 to April 1971 on Japan's science and technology. Some 4000 researchers and technical experts took part. The results showed that: Japan is likely to experience the next period of technological innovation during the later 1980s; Japanese experts tend to be more optimistic than their lay counterparts; subjects with a strong social need, when connected with public sectors of the economy, are likely to experience earlier technological achievement; and the Japanese have an unusually strong interest in environmental science and technology.