Tennessee Emerging as Lab for Japan-U.S. High-Tech Cooperation

An intriguing experiment in Japanese- American high-technology relations appears to be unfolding in the state of Tennessee. There the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) are exploring some joint research efforts with a unique Japanese high-tech agency under Japan's Ministry for International Trade & Industry (MITI). The Japanese agency is the New Energy & Industrial Technology Development Organization, abbreviated NEDO. Earlier this month NEDO officials met in Knoxville with key R&D figures from the three U.S. institutions to discuss at a one-day workshop ways the two groups could interact. Floating about, too, were ideas on what the relationship could mean in terms of better ways of tackling technology in a world with environmental regulations. The workshop was basically a show-and-tell session in which the Japanese officials reviewed such areas as MITFs and NEDO's role in international technology transfer, research projects ope...