The 1960s represented the dawn of “scientific planning” in
Japan. This was an age when plans were afoot for doubling the average
income when the National Comprehensive Plan was announced. The Japanese
economy entered upon a period of high-level growth and government agencies
began to fret over how to process vast quantities of information to accurately
comprehend conditions and how public investment—the factor which
plays the principal role in the formation of social capital—should
most appropriately be allocated. In conjunction with the rapid development
of computers, such demands one by one attained the realm of practical
realization.
Amidst such conditions, The Institute of Behavioral Sciences (IBS) was
founded in July 1964 as an incorporated foundation with the authorization
of the Prime Minister's Office.
IBS was founded in order to “conduct quantitative research into
political, economic, and social phenomena in Japan and other countries,
and to contribute to the dissemination of knowledge relating to rational
policy decisions and scientific planning by Japanese government agencies
and private companies.“ IBS is a nonprofit organization whose activities
are conducted with the profits accruing from investment of funds, donations,
commissioned research expenses, etc.
In 1968, on the occasion of the first urban person trip survey conducted
in Tokyo, the intention of which was to formulate a comprehensive urban
transport system plan for the metropolitan region, IBS came to assume
as its main fields of activity research, surveys, and related methodology
connected with urban planning and urban transport planning throughout
Japan. Such research was intended to promote a comprehensive basis including
fields of urban planning, the environment, the economy, social systems,
and information processing.
1981 saw the opening of the Tohoku Office in Sendai, whose purpose was
to tackle problems of regional planning, urban planning, and social system
planning intimately connected with regional society.
Following the initial person trip survey conducted in the Tokyo metropolitan
area in 1968, IBS carried out the second and third such surveys in 1978
and 1988 respectively. These surveys, together with research work involving
the planning of urban transport systems, have remained the core of IBS’s
work. In addition, IBS is involved in a wide range of research fields
including town planning, regional development, economics, social systems,
the environment and natural language processing. These research activities
are either commissioned or autonomously, having their results going toward
the formulation of policy proposals.
In March 1989, on the basis of our research to date and future prospects,
IBS began to work directly with the Management and Coordination Agency
and the Ministry of Construction as a foundation involved in surveys
and research, exchange of information, and international exchange in
connection with behavioral planning, urban transport planning, and other
types of planning related to these fields.
A research grant system (IBS Fellowship) was begun in 1994 to mark the
thirtieth anniversary of IBS's foundation.
Adhering to our role as a nonprofit research foundation active within
society at large, IBS will continue in the future to maintain a research
structure open to various fields. We will also continue to pursue substantial
and practically useful research work in both applied and basic domains.
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