Development of Industry-university Cooperation in Japan : Focusing on its major characteristics by each period

The development of industry-university cooperation has progressed rapidly in the past 15 years. Industry-university cooperation is a relatively new term that became in common use in the last 10 years. However, history shows that activities equivalent to industry-university cooperation have existed for many years. These activities have had important influences not only on the industrial field, but also on the university field. It is necessary to study the history of industry-university cooperation, when and in which form the industry-university cooperation has developed, to deeply understand the background of today's industry-university cooperation. This paper reviews earlier researches on the industry-university cooperation from a wide perspective and identifies the history of the activities concerning the industry- university cooperation into several periods. Then, major characteristics and values of industry-university cooperation as a research subject are discussed according to the classification