It is a great pleasure to introduce to you the Kobe Medical Industry Development Project, which is now unveiling its dynamic development as Japan's top class life science cluster, located in Port Island, just stone's throw offshore downtown Kobe, with excellent access and urban vicinity and the highest standard research environment.

Excellent Access
The center of activities of this project, now popular as Kobe Life Science Park, occupies the southern area of Port Island to which the new transport system Port Liner takes you from Sannomiya (center of the city) in about 12 minutes. A few minutes further down, Kobe Airport is serving to carry you from and to all major cities of Japan . From this airport a high-speed shuttle boat brings you in 30 minutes to Kansai International Airport for flying overseas. With such urban vicinity and easy access Kobe Life Science Cluster can thus be a land of paradise for research and business activities related to life science.

Excellent Research Environment
In Kobe Life Science Cluster we have now 11 major research facilities, concentrated in the area around the Sentan Iryo Senta-Mae Station, including Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation (IBRI), RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) and RIKEN Molecular Imaging Research Institute. In addition, the facility of super -computer with the world largest performance capacity, RIKEN Next-Generation Computer, is now under installment for full operation in 2012. This next-generation computer is expected to serve as a powerful weapon for a multitude of technology fields, such as life science research, manufacturing technology development, nano-technology etc. In 2011 Kobe City General Hospital will move into this area and start its service, and around this hospital a group of highly specialized medical institutes are planned to have their facilities.

As a supporting organization, the Foundation of Biomedical Research and Innovation (FBRI), located in Kobe Life Science Cluster, provides a wide variety of business support services and guidance.