Dr. Yukinobu MIKI
Director-General, Metrology Institute of Japan
Representing the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ),
Natinal Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)

The modern metrology system began more than a hundred years ago, and at the same time, an organization was begun to support the system technologically. Since then, they have together supported our country in both trade and technological development by providing reliable measurement standards. As times change, the economic scale is growing to a global size, technological competition is calling for a competitive edge, and people are expecting a more secure society. Under such circumstances, the demand for traceability has increasingly assumed importance because traceability guarantees the reliability of all kinds of measurements, which economic globalization and such depend upon.

The nation took on this challenge by establishing the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ) in 2001 as part of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and NMIJ started integrated technological development and supply of measurement standards both domestically and internationally. NMIJ consists of two main organizations, which are the Metrology Institute of Japan (MIJ) and the Metrology Management Center. Since their establishment, they have tried in various ways to accommodate widely varying metrological needs from a broad spectrum of technological spheres in industry. MIJ is in charge of technological development such as the improvement of national standards for still higher precision, and also of calibration and testing services by applying such improvement. On the other hand, the Metrology Management Center coordinates various activities for them to function effectively. Those activities vary, and include quality management, domestic dissemination of the latest information and exploration of current needs, training of domestic measurement experts, and representing Japan in international activities. We at NMIJ are willing to lead technological support for the realization and operation of a domestic traceability system, which allows users to choose and use a different level of measurement reliability according to cost and time. We further wish to make NMIJ an even more user-friendly organization.