Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ABOUT INSTAC
Table of Contents
I. Establishment
II. Overview of Business
III. Organizational Diagram
IV. Introduction to 2004 Standardization Research Projects
I. Establishment
On July 1, 1985, the INformation technology research and STAndardization Center (INSTAC) was
established within the Japanese Standards Association (JSA) based on a proposal from a special
committee on information technology standards set up within the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee
(JISC), to strengthen the structure for promoting information-technology standards.
The primary business of INSTAC is conducting research regarding the drafting of standards in the field of
information technology and preparing draft standards based on the results of this research, as well as
conducting business related to these activities.
The research now being conducted by INSTAC in the field of information technology basically complies with
long-term plans for promoting industrial standardization formulated by the Japanese Industrial Standards
Committee. (The current version is the report of the Committee for Standardization Activities in the 21st
Century, formulated on May 29, 2000.) Due to the rapid pace of technological progress in information
technology, however, INSTAC drafts annual plans that properly reflect standardization needs and
implements these plans.
For this reason, INSTAC established the Strategic Committee for IT Standardization beginning in 2000. This
committee considers, from a strategic point of view, such matters as the means of determining and defining
standardization topics in the IT field, and the means for promoting standardization activities. Moreover, this
committee provides ongoing opportunities to select and determine topics that should be addressed over
both short-term and mid-term horizons, and makes related proposals to the national government, industry,
and other parties through INSTAC independently or in cooperation with other standardization groups or
other parties.
A research committee (i.e., new committee, subcommittee, working group) is established for each theme,
with research being advanced by incorporating the knowledge of specialists serving as committee members.
Moreover, personnel sent from major companies in the IT industry are assigned as INSTAC lead
researchers to serve as coordinators of the committee's activities.
3 Research Resources
The resources with which INSTAC conducts its business fall under the special budget for IT standardization
research, which consists of government expenses, grants (from the Japan Keirin Association), funding by
the industry, and funding by JSA, among others.
4 Results of Research
In the information processing sector (JIS X), INSTAC is fulfilling its functions as Japan's most prolific
institution in terms of the number of draft standards established.
Increasing the ability of industry to formulate standards has been demanded during the course of reviewing
the industrial standardization system and revising the Industrial Standardization Law. The role of INSTAC in
formulating standards in the IT field reflects these requirements.
Various specialist technical committees have been established within INSTAC to promote its operations.
1 Policy Board
The INSTAC Policy Board has been set up to supervise major matters concerning INSTAC's operations and
answer questions concerning such matters from the JSA Chairman.
Policy Board Chairman: Junji Maeyama, Corporate Executive Vice President, Fujitsu Limited
2 Steering Committee
As a committee under the Policy Board in the INSTAC organizational structure, the Steering Committee has
been set up to handle communications and to make arrangements. This committee consists of member
companies and institutions, and its meetings are held before those of the Policy Board. It primarily
supervises INSTAC business plans, budgeting, and other matters.
This committee is charged with clarifying the overall direction for INSTAC activities, ensuring harmony and
cooperation between the activities of each committee, and implementing efficient operations.
4 Technical Committees
Technical Committees are established for each type of theme in the IT field, while maintaining close
cooperation with academic institutions, industry, and other parties. These committees conduct operations to
promote standardization.
5 Office
INSTAC will undertake the projects below in fiscal 2004, based on the trust fund from the Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry, grants from the Japan Keirin Association, and funding provided by the
industry, JSA, and others. A report on fiscal 2003 projects has also been included for reference purposes.
1 The following three projects and seven themes will be implemented as projects based on trust
fund from the national government:
2 The following project and nine themes will be implemented as a project based on grants from the
Japan Keirin Association:
3 Other Operations
1. (A) Research and development on standardization in connection with themes (1) - (5) under
"essential technologies in the IT field":
• Incorporating ISO/IEC TR 19760 (A Guide for the Application of System Life Cycle
Processes) into TR
These are the guidelines for methods of using system life-cycle processes (JIS X 0170)
• Collecting Japan's opinions on the ISO/TC46 project for presentation to the ISO office (for voting)
• Conducting operations of the ISO/TC46 meeting in Japan
• Dispatching members to the ISO/TC46 plenary meeting
• Voting on ISO/TC46 proposals
4) Analysis and investigation on points of the means of attack and requirements (secondary)
To analyze and investigate the means of attack anticipated from the standpoint of requirements,
we will conduct software-level verification and confirm the validity of the results of these research
and development activities.
During this fiscal year, we will conduct verification experiments on 32-bit technology and research
Japan's own attacks.
In order to prepare to draft international standards concerning systematization of the means of attack and
tamper-proofing requirements created as a result of these research and development activities, and ensure
these are reflected in international standards, it is vital to conduct tenacious negotiations and consultation
with the standardization organizations of all ISO/IEC JTC1/SC27 member countries to reflect these in
international standards. For this reason, we will proceed with an energetic and tenacious exchange of
opinions with the standardization organizations of the principal countries. During this fiscal year, we will
deepen cooperation with each country based on the results of activities in the previous fiscal year.
(3) Results
We proposed international standards concerning JIS X 8341-1:2004 (guidelines for older persons and
persons with disabilities -- information communication equipment, software, and services - Part 1: Common
Guidelines) and JIS X 8341-3:2004 (guidelines for older persons and persons with disabilities -- information
communication equipment, software, and services - Part 3: Web Content), accepted the role of Project
Editor, and proceeded with activities toward international standardization.
We will take up varied themes in the area of information technology with high-potential social benefits.
These themes include IT standardization strategic research, future document-integration systems, business-
object sharing technology, and grid computing. We will also establish a research committee while
maintaining close liaison with academic societies, industry, and other related parties, create JIS drafts, and
engage in such standardization activities as supporting the proposal of international standards and making
great contributions to promoting the standardization of information technology.
Details of implementation of each research theme are as follows:
1) IT standardization strategy research
Compared to Europe and North America, Japan's contributions to the standardization of
information processing have not been as great as the scale of products it produces. Moreover,
Japan has rarely taken the initiative in such measures as proposing new standards. Under such
circumstances, these research activities must consider measures to vitalize standardization
activities in the IT sector, select proactive themes for standardization, and evaluate the research
activities of each subcommittee, among other activities.
2) Standardization research on future document integration systems
Although information exchange on the web has rapidly spread, the exchange of not only
documents, but also of moving images, still images, music, and multidimensional, multilingual
interactive documents will hopefully be achieved. To prepare an environment in which any user can
efficiently generate, distribute, manage, and reuse information, these research activities must
consider creating a model for a document integration system for multidimensional, multilingual
interactive documents, selecting related standardization issues and preparing regulations, and
researching general business models and metamodels, among other topics.
In fiscal 2004, we will conduct research (especially from the standpoint of responding to a
multilingual environment) on ontological markup languages and metasearch protocols for object
classification that are required for metasearches of objects dispersed and covering wide-ranging
fields. We will make proposals to related international standardization organizations concerning
said research and prepare JIS or TR drafts.
3) Standardization research on business-object sharing technology
The research includes a study on information elements (i.e., data elements that can be shared and
comprise reports and business forms used in doing business, such as customer names and
inventories) that form the basis of system coordination among such businesses as online electronic
commerce, and on standardization trends of business-process models by domain (e.g., areas of
business such as sales, manufacturing, and medical care). By taking into account the standards
set by ISO or various leading overseas organizations (such as UN/CEFACT and the OMG) and
their technical information, JIS and TR required for the advancement of the machinery and other
industries and the widespread use of information technology to make production activities more
efficient will be drafted.
Since fiscal 2003, this committee has conducted practical experimentation on a practical repository
based on ebXML specifications, in close cooperation with the ECOM NR&R project. In fiscal 2004,
the committee will conduct research on requirements for formulating JIS standards and related
detailed technical requirements, based on the results of this research.
Moreover, we will proceed with practical experimentation on linking the repositories of Japan,
China, and South Korea, and related standardization requirements, based on the Framework for
Metamodel Interoperability for which ISO standardization is proceeding, through cooperation with
SC32 members in South Korea and China.
4) Standardization research on grid computing
Grid computing is a broad-based technology used not only for linking CPU power, but also for
integrally connecting differing computer resources like data and software.
This scientific field is now being studied in Japan and overseas, with standardization activities
already underway. This movement is now gradually extending to the area of business. Thus,
research will seek to ascertain such movement with coordination and support, while studying
standardization for the compatibility of heterogeneous equipment and promoting the release of
such information worldwide.
The research in fiscal 2004 will continue that from fiscal 2003, and concentrate on selecting the
elements of standardization (such as cluster management middleware and data management) in
heterogeneous networks, security, interfaces, and Japanese-language environments, as well as on
operating technology (such as operation management and monitoring-tool technology). We will
make recommendations and prepare guidelines for grid computing operation.
5) Standardization research on XML application-related subjects
The W3C has developed the network-friendly data markup language XML, and Technical Reports
(TR) for the language and related standards are being issued in Japan as well. Apart from
electronic commerce and electronic government applications, the scope of XML application ranges
from home electric appliances to development of system for managing text documents and data.
To make effective use of XML in these diverse areas of application, various private, governmental,
and UN organizations have been pushing ahead with its standardization. For this reason, the
standardization research will focus on selecting standardization issues in Japan in the
corresponding areas.
In fiscal 2004, we will prepare JIS/TS drafts for XML-related standards, such as incorporating
XBRL into JIS. These efforts will support the IT industry by promoting the proliferation of XML.
6) Standardization research on citizen support by intelligent software
Due to a low birthrate, aging population, dwindling family time due to divergent work and school
hours, and globalized shift in population, the mode of interpersonal communication is undergoing
drastic changes. For this reason, citizens are looking for a framework (citizen support system) that
provides them with a variety of services for obtaining information on daily life, responding to
emergency situations, exchanging information among family members, and making applications to
public offices, and yet can save labor in providing these services.
Home electronics products with intelligent functions are expected to become key elements for
citizen support. To proceed with such support, the proliferation of related technology is necessary.
However, since a high level of technology related to intelligent functions is needed to produce such
products, vendors that can supply said products are limited.
These research efforts will create guidelines for using technology comprising intelligent functions,
thus making intelligent software easy to understand and use.
In fiscal 2004, we will examine the structures for providing services via intelligent software from the
user's standpoint, based on the results of research conducted in fiscal 2003. We will also prepare
business models for citizen support.
7) Standardization research on creation of content distribution market
Although the distribution of content on the Internet is expected to form a huge market, startup has
been sluggish (contrary to expectations). The main reason for this slow startup is that the
compatibility of different content protection and distribution specifications is not guaranteed.
To build a consensus on the specifications to be recommended, we will review existing content
protection and distribution specifications, and seek to resolve this issue by making receiving
equipment compatible with multiple content protection and distribution specifications.
In fiscal 2004, we will investigate Digital Rights Management (DRM) requirements with respect to
users (content holders and end users), based on the results of the research conducted in fiscal
2003, and create business models for forming a superdistribution market. We will prepare reports
collecting the content of such deliberations and make efforts to advance standardization based on
the results of said research.
8) Standardization research on e-books
Digital publishing refers not only to digital editing, production, and storage, but also to promoting
the production of digital content by making remarkable advances in superior portable terminals and
display devices. To promote the exchange of human-readable documents by effectively utilizing
such technologies, the environment for encoding and exchanging document display data must be
upgraded. In particular, to overcome the current situation in which international compatibility has
not been achieved, we will create e-book system standards that achieve international compatibility.
In fiscal 2004, we will research and consider trends in new media and mobile terminals, e-book
formats, and interfaces, trends in international standardization, and determine subjects for
standardization and standardization systems, among other topics. We will also prepare business
models for promoting standardization based on the results of this research.
9) Standardization research on Open-Source Software (OSS)
The use of Open-Source Software (OSS) is spreading rapidly overseas as a means of improving
security and reducing development and maintenance costs.
OSS is used not only in the software industry, but also in the field of embedded software. However,
its market share in Japan is small, with the development environment now being created. This is
because various uncertainties regarding OSS (concerning quality and support), developer
uncertainties regarding business viability, licensing issues, and other issues have yet to be
resolved.
To resolve these uncertainties, in fiscal 2004 we will pinpoint and interpret such issues, as well as
survey the status of OSS acceptance overseas and consider measures for achieving the spread of
OSS in Japan. We will also prepare business models for promoting standardization based on the
results of this research.
• We considered adopting Z39.50 (JIS X 0806) for XML and the Japanese language,
surveyed trends in standardization related to technologies for document-sharing and
reuse, and collected related results in a report.
3 Other Operations
We will establish a road-map working group under the Strategic Committee for IT Standardization continues
the activities of the previous fiscal year in implementing maintenance for the road map for IT
standardization, and is now preparing a revised version.
Pursuant to a recommendation made in The Standardization Road Map of the IT Area, this course was
established at Waseda University Graduate School (Asia-Pacific Studies) in fiscal 2000. The special course
(sponsored course), which is intended to foster human resources required for future standardization in the
field of information technology, will be maintained this fiscal year. (Dates: five days from February 9 through
February 14, 2004).