ments and styles of intervention, to emphasize aspects that had received less attention in the past, to invent new political and administrative procedures, to develop mechanisms of interaction among agents and rules of behavior (Orsenigo, 1989).
Three Japanese government departments were at the forefront of Japan's efforts to promote biotechnology. These include the Science and Technology Agency (STA), the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF). The STA was the first to show an interest in biotechnology.
The STA's advisory group, the Science and Technology Council, stressed the importance of promoting the life sciences on a national basis as early as 1971, and the STA responded in 1973 by establishing its office for Life for Science Promotion. The STA is Japan's highest science and technology policy-making body and has responsibility for managing a range of biotechnology research and development (R&D) projects. The STA funds rese
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