Word: miti
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This type of north-south bargain is also what the Rio conference should be all about. But while the U.S. seems to treat Rio's emerging suite of agreements as a threat, other industrial nations see the Earth Summit as an opportunity. MITI, Japan's powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry, is developing a 100-year plan to make Japan dominant in eco- technologies; Tokyo is also said to be pondering ways to become the world leader in environmental reform...
...totally out of the fuzzy picture yet. A small firm in Irvine, Calif., Togai InfraLogic, has already achieved several of the goals MITI set for itself, including a fuzzy computer chip that can perform 28,600 fuzzy-logical inferences per sec. (FLIPS). And NASA is experimenting with fuzzy controllers that could help astronauts pilot the shuttle in earth orbit. The results so far, say NASA officials, are encouraging, and there is growing interest at such aerospace firms as Rockwell and Boeing. "The only barrier remaining" to wider use of fuzzy logic, says Kosko, "is the philosophical resistance of the West...
Such changes have been slow in coming, in part because responsibility for controlling the trade in endangered species rests with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which is also charged with protecting and promoting Japanese commercial interests. For instance, MITI delayed limiting imports of endangered hawksbill turtles because the agency did not want to allocate quotas among different industries that used the shells. Finally, with both the turtles and the turtle-consuming industries facing extinction, MITI has taken the small step of limiting imports to traditional craftsmen who carve the carapaces into traditional hair combs. Says Toru Takimoto, MITI...
...MITI also runs the celebrated Institute for New Generation Computer Technology, which has an annual budget of $38.8 million. Scientists there are designing a new generation of supercomputers that will allow users to give orders in English or Japanese rather than in a computer language. Such systems could be used as office secretaries, teachers' aides, automatic nursing systems or translators. Another field in which the Japanese are coming on strong is finance. Their trade surplus, combined with a high personal-savings rate, has provided the Japanese with a huge pool of cash to spread around the world. That has given...
...this year, shorter working hours and rising incomes have increased demand for items as diverse as bread-baking machines, self-stirring saucepans, oversize TVs and imported cars. Even things "made in the U.S.A." are becoming more popular -- though not as fast as many American producers would like. Notes MITI's Sugiyama: "We're still trying hard to add to our shopping list something other than jets and computers from...