The 85th session of the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP) was held at the Prime Minister's Office on October 8, 2009.

At this session, the CSTP renewed its decision to adopt policies for the allocation of resources including the science and technology budget in fiscal 2010 and the budget request for special coordination funds for promoting science and technology under the Hatoyama Cabinet. Minister Kan explained “Green Innovation,” which was included in the policy for the allocation of resources as the most important policy task.

Prime Minister Hatoyama commented, “This cabinet is unusual in that the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and Chief Cabinet Secretary all have engineering degrees. The cabinet as a whole will continue to promote science and technology with a strong interest. I have had experience in research activity myself, and I hope that young researchers will work on research programs that will meet the needs of social systems while giving consideration to their usefulness in society. We should not say that they must focus only on the application research for that purpose; basic research is also essential. “I expect that industry will have a hard time in relation to the goal of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by 25% by 2020 compared with the 1990 level, on the premise of agreement on ambitious reduction targets by all the major economies , which I mentioned at the U.N. Summit on Climate Change. However, I hope that industry will regard this as an opportunity to significantly develop Japan’s science and technology capabilities. I would like to ask the Council for Science and Technology Policy to continue setting forth a vision of Japan’s future when formulating their policies.”