alluded to by Dr. Fuchi in some of his remarks in the Evaluation Workshop, Involve the training 
of a generation of computer scientists. 

2 A New Generation 

In these preliminary remarks, I will not go into the numerous details and implications of this 
"side effect" of the FGCS Project (I leave that detailed analysis for a journal article I am 
preparing on the subject). I will summarize the main points as I see them from the vantage 
point of working shoulder-to-shoulder with ICOT members. 

1. increased communication culture - ICOT infrastructure was unique for Japanese research 
   groups in the early 1980's in that it supplied researchers with various communication 
   channels that normally did not exist in the corporate culture: 


company-to-company interaction engendered by the cooperative efforts of engineers 
from several companies. 
electronic mail, increasing international as well as local information flow. 
company-to-university interaction engendered by the Working Groups (initiated at 
the inception of the project). A related point is PhD production, discussed below. 
I know best that Prof. Tanaka of the University of Tokyo has a close research re-
lationship to ICOT, working on design of inference multiprocessors and languages 
throughout these past ten years. Other professors have also influenced and are influ-
enced by ICOT research. 
Japan-to-international research community interaction engendered by the high value 
placed on the publication and presentation of research results. 


2. post-graduate education - ICOT served as a substitute for OJT ("on-the-job training"), 
   and in doing so, graduated a generation of engineer/managers well educated in advanced 
   areas of computer science and better able to manage their own groups in the future. The 
   latter point applies to both the management of engineering groups as well as political 
   management, learned by a close relationship with MITI. 

3. "corporate culture explosion" - I know of no other words to aptly describe the movement 
   away from the culture of lifetime employment. I believe that ICOT coincided with greater 
   forces within Japan causing this revolution; however, the revolution was certainly felt 
   within the FGCS Project. Several, not a few, ICOT members switched their affiliations 
   between companies and from companies to universities. If there was ever an Industry to 
   foster such a movement, it would certainly be a high-technology area such as computer 
   engineering, therefore this should not come as a surprise. However, I think it did catch 
   some of the companies by surprise. 


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