64. The representative of Japan provided a summary of the technical cooperation activities, in the field of intellectual property, of the Japanese Patent Office and other Japanese government intellectual property authorities since April 1996. He said that Japan's technical cooperation activities were not limited to the Asian region and that Japan was very much attached to the development of global protection of intellectual property rights as a fundamental measure to stimulate domestic science and technology and to facilitate trade and investment. Outlining Japan's technical cooperation activities he referred, firstly, to the "1000/2000 program", which entailed inviting 1000 people working for the government or the private sector to a training programme by the year 2000, i.e. the time for implementation of the TRIPS Agreement. This programme was designed for developing countries in the final process of implementing the TRIPS Agreement; in the past year, Japan had invited 250 experts for a visit. Secondly, the Japanese Patent Office had established, ten years previously, a voluntary contribution to the International Bureau of WIPO, known as the "Japan Trust Fund"; in the past year, the amount had been doubled in order to respond to increasing demand from the region. Thirdly, Japan had been making greater use of new information technology such as CD-ROMs and internet technology to disseminate intellectual property information among users, both domestic and worldwide, i.e. not limited to Asia. He invited Members to obtain further details from the home page on the internet of the Japanese Patent Office.
