FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:             G 94-62
July 12, 1994

Contact:  Anne Enright Shepherd    AGREEMENT BETWEEN U.S. AND
          (301) 975-4858           JAPAN SPAWNS INNOVATIVE
                                   INTERNATIONAL OPTOELECTRONICS
                                   PROGRAM FOR COMPUTING

     The United States and Japan have agreed on the last critical
step before realization of a joint program to further the design
and development of the advanced computing technologies that
integrate optical and electronic components.

     The agreement, signed June 30, establishes the process for
funding a "broker" through which the Joint Optoelectronics
Project will be carried out in the United States.  It was reached
at a recent meeting in Tsukuba, Japan between the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry, the Real World Computing
Partnership of Japan and the U.S. Department of Commerce's
National Institute of Standards and Technology.  Earlier steps
had led to agreement by the two nations on the implementation
plan that governs the overall conduct of the joint project in
Japan and the United States.

     A part of Japan's Real World Computing program, a
10-year, $700 million initiative to develop the next generation
of information-processing technologies, the Joint Optoelectronics
Project will involve researchers and processing facilities in
both nations.

     "This project represents a remarkable international
collaboration, one in which two traditionally fierce rivals in
the scientific and engineering arenas have joined together to
advance dramatically a technology valuable to both," said U.S.
Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown.

     The agreement establishes a broker, which is a service that
links designers of advanced computer systems dependent on
optoelectronic devices and modules with suppliers of such
components in research and development divisions of companies in
both countries.  Each country will have its own broker, but
suppliers in both nations will be available to Japanese and
American designers.  

     According to the agreement, NIST will select the broker in
the United States to be funded by the Real World Computing
Partnership.  The U.S. broker will be responsible for bringing
together designers of innovative, advanced computer systems and
fabricators of optoelectronic components, which will allow the
designers to evaluate their ideas by manufacturing experimental
prototypes.

     The broker also will deal with non-technical issues such as
intellectual property rights and import/export licenses to
protect the interests of the participants and facilitate an
effective service.  NIST is expected to solicit competitive bids
from potential brokers and award a contract within about three
months.  In Japan the broker, the Optoelectronic Industry and
Technology Development Association, has been selected and the
contract is being prepared.

     The components to be worked on will be part of research
prototype modules helping to serve as a bridge between today's
electronic computers and the fully optical machines that are
envisioned for the future.  Merging optical and electronic
technologies offers an evolutionary path toward faster, more
versatile computers with an expanded range of applications.

     The Joint Optoelectronics Project is directed by a Joint
Management Committee of representatives from the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry and the Real World Computing
Partnership in Japan and the National Science Foundation, the
Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, the
Department of State and NIST in the United States.  The project
will be carried on under the policy framework established by the
1988 United States-Japan Agreement on Cooperation in Research and
Development in Science and Technology.  This project is intended
to stimulate R&D activity in optoelectronics, provide designers
with access to leading-edge fabrication facilities and encourage
effective collaboration.  Its cooperative activities are to be
conducted on the basis of equality, reciprocity and mutual
benefit between the two nations.

     It is an experimental activity, intended to provide a new
model for United States-Japan cooperative research and to provide
practical benefits to advances in optoelectronics and to the
designers of innovative computer systems.

                                  # # #

Note to editors:  The attached statement was distributed
concurrently to the Japanese press by MITI.

             Japan-U.S. Joint Optoelectronics Project

July 12, 1994
Ministry of International
Trade and Industry

1.  The Ministry of International Trade and Industry and a
committee representing five agencies of the U.S. Government
chaired by the Department of Commerce conducted the study about
the Joint Optoelectronics Project with an aim to promote research
and development of optical computing systems.  The parties
earlier reached an agreement on the Implementation Plan of the
project.  On June 30 they signed an agreement that is the first
step toward the commencement of the technical activities of the
project which is targeted for October of this year.

2.  Positioned as part of the Real World Computing Program, a
ten-year project being implemented by the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry since 1992, this project will be
carried out under the policy framework established by the 1988
United States-Japan Agreement on Cooperation in Research and
Development in Science and Technology.

3.  This project is designed to develop a mechanism to promote
interaction between innovative and advanced optoelectronic device
manufacturers and users developing systems by using such devices
in both Japan and the United States.  This will enable users to
purchase advanced optoelectronic devices still on the research
and development stages, which were previously not available to
them, thus facilitating the further development of the research
on optical computing systems.

(The U.S. side release to the press the attached information
including the comment of U.S. Commerce Secretary Ronald H.
Brown.)

Contact:  Saeki, Matsubara
          Industrial Electronics Division
          Machinery and Information Industries Bureau
          Phone:    03-3501-1511 ext. 3341
                    03-3501-1074 (direct)
          Fax:      03-3580-6073