Research and Development of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells in Japan

New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) promotes R&D that individual private sector enterprises can not undertake by themselves. To do this, it utilizes an extensive network that supports cooperation between industries, universities, and public research organizations. NEDO's government-funded R&D budget for FY2005 totals approximately 148.8 billion yen. Fuel cells and hydrogen technology development project is one of NEDO's emphasizing projects. The budget size was ${\yen}$20.8 billion, corresponding to about 60% of annual expenditure of Japanese government for fuel cells in FY2005. These projects consist of 8 programs as follows.