| Masahiro Abe, Ph. D. | Global R&D Operation Office, Research and Development Group, |
Following the growth of production and product development overseas, the expansion of overseas R&D operations for supporting regional business operations is continuing. Moreover, the so-called "off-shoring" of R&D to places with huge pools of human resources (such as China and India) in search of improved cost performance has become more active in recent years. In the meantime, for the sake of developing cutting-edge technologies, collaborative research between the world's top class research institutes is all the rage. Since 1989, Hitachi has been engaged in overseas R&D that makes best use of regional strong points. For example, in the USA, this R&D has been centered on supporting business (such as development of automotive technologies), and in Europe, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, it has targeted cutting-edge devices. Moreover, research activities have been progressing in the economically booming China since 2000, and more recently in South East Asia, and a global R&D network is being expanded through collaborative efforts between these research centers and Hitachi's research centers throughout Japan.
 | The Hitachi Hyoron (Japanese Only) |
global R&D, HDD technology, Automotive technology, Advanced device technology, IT technology
