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Nanotechnology Nanotechnology, usually defined as being the construction and manipulation of materials on a nanometer (10^{-9} meter) scale, is one of the future technologies which seems rapidly to be becoming feasible. Among the immediate applications of nanotechnology are improved electrical devices through shrinking of chip size, designer drugs, "green" pollution filters and scrubbers, and extremely sensitive sensors. Longer term, would be "intelligent" stimulus-responsive materials, the construction of new "perfect" materials designed down to the atomic level, “nanobots”, and general purpose assemblers. Japan at present is not emphasizing nanotechnology research per se in the same way the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) earlier carried out its Fifth-Generation Computer Project. Indeed, it is questionable as to whether the higher-ups in the bureaucracy have ever been exposed to the more esoteric concepts involved--they seem totally oblivious to "strong' nanotechnology "a la" Eric Drexler's concept of nanobots, general assemblers, etc. On the other hand, the basic research areas underlying nanotechnology (biotechnology, fabrication of semiconductor devices on the scale of nanometers) are areas of g