JAPAN and the WORLD Magazine JULY ISSUE 2015 #Issue 12 | Page 62

HAL
ROBOTICS
HAL’s technologies are innovative and everything
is so new. Generally speaking, all innovative
technologies have the same problem of having no
existing market, no users, no professionals, and
no international rules. We need to try to change
the “no” to “new” in order to create new markets.
AN INNOVATIVE PROJECT WITHIN A WIDER
FRAMEWORK FOR AN INNOVATIVE JAPAN
The HAL adventure began in 1991. From
creating the principle of HAL, basic research,
making prototypes, experiments, development,
evaluation, development of safety technology
and safety evaluation technology, clinical
research, clinical evaluation, designing
international safety standards, clinical trial,
application of medical device approval, to
building international collaborations, we
passed through a multitude of long roads to get
where we are now.
We have an excellent relationship with our
government. I visited the Cabinet Office of the
government several times to participate in the
council for science, technology and innovation
and met with Prime Ministers Koizumi, Aso,
Abe, and other ministers in the council. All of
them wish to see the human assistive industry
based on robotics, cybernics and IoT solve the
problems of the ageing society and support our
efforts.
The Japanese government prepared special
funding for only thirty researchers in
science and technology fields such as space,
biotechnology, robotics and etc. through the
FIRST program (Funding Program for World-
Leading Innovative R&D on Science and
Technology). In the robotics field, I was the
only researcher selected and I was also recently
selected as one of twelve program managers of
the ImPACT Program (Impulsing Paradigm
Change through Disruptive Technologies) in
order to create ground-breaking innovations
that will bring about major changes in the
state of industry and society if realized, and to
promote high-risk and high-impact R&D.
Now, governments and industries have started
to make strategies to solve social problems by the
“innovation”. Policy and innovation in science and
technology promoted by Japanese government
are very important in order to contribute and
solve the social problems we are currently facing.
GOING GLOBAL AND THE NEED FOR
INTERNATIONAL SAFETY STANDARDS
On March 2014, CYBERDYNE Inc. finished
its stock market launch—its current market
capitalization is almost USD 3 billion. HAL has
already obtained a medical device certificate
across the Eu