Activities of National Institute of Informatics in Japan

The National Institute of Informatics (NII) is a national-level research and services institute focusing on informatics in Japan. NII was formally established in 2000 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). Located in downtown Tokyo, approximately 80 permanent researchers conduct computer science research in various fields. In addition, NII provides networking and information services for more than 1,000 research and educational institutions in Japan. This article describes NII's activities in these two complementary missions: research and services that support research (as illustrated in Figure 1).