The government should work more closely with university-based research institutes on the missile shield project it is pursuing with the United States, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday.
"We'll have to increase interaction between the defense community and academia," he said before the House of Representatives Budget Committee, referring to the importance of improving defense technology overall.
He criticized the atmosphere at universities and other research organizations, which he characterized as aloof toward the defense community. "It looks as if they believe that they should not interact with what the Defense Agency is doing, or that there should be no interaction between the academic and the defense circles," Ishiba said.