Chiba Prefecture's Vision for the Kazusa Academia Park and the Biotechnology Industry

摘要

This article concerns Chiba Prefecture's vision for the Biotechnology Industry. It discusses the Kazusa Academy Park and the Kazusa DNA Research Institute first, and then mentions bio-tech related activities in other areas. Chiba Prefecture began with the distillation industry, including the manufacture of shoyu (soy sauce), but upon the enactment of the "Chiba New Industrial Triangle Concept" in June 1983 with the aim of refining the prefecture's industrial structure, and the "Basic Concept Relating to the Kazusa Acade-mia Park" endorsed in June 1984, state-of-the-art modern biotechnology activities started. In more concrete terms, biotechnology structured on the genome was activated. The "Kazusa Academia Park Concept" was instituted for the development of Kazusa Plateau in 1987. This region covers roughly 280 hectares and encompasses the Kisarazu and Kimitsu regions. The park was faithfully modeled after a European or American research park in conformance with the "cluster system" which uses the earth surface preparation method allowing the plateau and its greenery to remain in a natural form, while the public research institutions, corporate research laboratories and factories are sited in a strategic biotechnology pattern. In March, 1991, the Kazusa DNA Research Institute was established as the organ to implement the program, and it commenced research activities in October, 1994.