Materials research in Japanese universities

Materials research activities in Japan, as an important research area of fusion engineering, is briefly reviewed with emphasis on university activities. The activities cover major structural materials research and development on reduced-activation ferritic steels, vanadium alloys and SiC/SiC composite materials, functional ceramics, blanket materials, irradiation facilities and the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility, and theory and modeling for fusion materials research. These activities are not only for near-term materials issues but place stronger emphasis on the longterm issues to be solved by DEMO and power reactor time periods.