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On Technology Summit 2005, Dr. Michiharu Nakamura, Executive Vice President and Executive Hitachi, Ltd. and Head of Research & Development, introduced the company's efforts in this aspect with the topic of "R&D Oriented to 2010" with concrete examples (right picture), focused on 3 aspects: (1)R&D system; (2)research cases; (3)R&D talent for the future.

At present, Hitachi, Ltd. has about 4,000 R&D employees including those at the laboratories. "It is especially important how much advanced technology that is comparable with other companies can be gained." From this perspective, Hitachi encouraged these 4,000 R&D workers to work across companies and research tasks in the Group, which is a major characteristic of this company. Michiharu said, "The company is now discussing which ones are to be chosen from the over 20 research tasks for the 10-20 years to come."

As concrete R&D examples, Nakamura instantiated the automotive driving control system and lithium ion rechargeable battery technology. A 4-wheel driving system is being developed with this company's simulation technology. This system can use the motor to drive the rear wheels on the basis of the front driving wheels and simulate the dynamics of a driving vehicle.

And this company will be committed to the R&D of lithium ion batteries. "In 2010, HEV will become popular, backed strongly by lithium ion rechargeable battery. Moreover, the scope of application will not be limited to automobiles, and will be extended to railway vehicles and motorcycles." Nakamura said, Hitachi, Ltd. was actively engaged in the development of automobile technology because development strength was strong for all automobile parts of this company. The parts here refer specifically to battery, motor and inverter.Nakamura added, though there were concerns of reliability and cost with fuel battery, such battery was being applied to mobile phones and notebook PCs and would become more and more popular from this point.

Nakamura thought, "Being a step ahead means greater profits". He said, Hitachi required its technicians to be able to position future technology precisely and be proactive for the future. As an example of great R&D effort, Nakamura introduced some R&D projects in which creativity of researchers was given full play, such as limit measurement technology applying quantum mechanics, DNA analysis technology and brain measurement technology, etc.(Reporter: Ito Daiki)