30 years ago….

Hamamatsu area has been selected as one of the 26 areas specified in Promotion Act for Accelerating the Development of High‐Tech Industry Integrated Region (Commonly known as Technopolis Act), which was planned and put into effect in 1983 by MITI :Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now METI).
Hamakita Research Park (with development area of 17 ha), the optical technology park, is the one developed according to the Technopolis development plan in 1987.
This area was developed, aiming to become a world-class optical technology development base, recruiting world-class technical experts.
Vice President Teruo Hiruma (then President) of Hamamatsu Photonics K. K. hoped to make Hamamatsu an international optical technology development base and established a Central Research Laboratory in Hamakita Research Park. He has built a quite ambitious plan to recruit top-level scientists studying the application of optical technology from all over Japan and overseas to prepare a strong R & D consortium.

Preeminent Photonics City,　Hamamatsu

After a lapse of time, in June 2013, the four organizations, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, The Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries (GPI), and Hamamatsu Photonics K. K. signed “Photonics Declaration 2013 in Hamamatsu”.
Hamamatsu is the birthplace of television, where Dr. Kenjiro Takayanagi, assistant professor of Hamamatsu Higher School of Technological (now Faculty of Engineering of Shizuoka University), has achieved a great invention. Industries succeeding the technology were generated and research on optical technologies have been continued to achieve numerous outcomes.
Now, with the 100-year anniversary since the birth of television in Hamamatsu in 1926 in the near future, the four organizations, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries, and Hamamatsu Photonics, K. K. have signed “Photonics Declaration 2013 in Hamamatsu” with the common recognition that “light” could contribute more to the earth and mankind, both of which have lots of problem and they must do so. They identified this as the new mission of HAMAMATSU, the Leading Development City of Optical Technology. They have signed the “Declaration on Hamamatsu as the Photonics Technology City with the wish to realize that.

Official Start

Innovation Photonics Evolution Research Center has officially started with this as a trigger.
In October 2013, the above project was adopted as COI-S “Innovation Photonics Evolution Research Center, which freely manipulates photonics over time and space to realize Sustainable Society” of Innovation Creation Program (COI STREAM) Vision 2 “Construction of Rich Living Environment” executed by Japan Science and Technology Agency. Currently this projected is being advanced, with Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., Honda Electronics Co., Ltd., Pulstec Industrial Co., Ltd., and Brookman Technology, Inc. joining the original four: Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, The Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries, and Hamamatsu Photonics, K. K..

Completed iPERC

And January 2015, Innovation Photonics Evolution Research Center building was completed in Hamamatsu Campus of Shizuoka University, as one of the 16 places developed in the “Development of the Center for International Scientific Innovation by Academia-Industry Cooperation, Fully Utilizing Local Resources, etc.” of MEXT.
It was about 2 years after the adoption of the project jointly proposed by Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, The Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries, and Hamamatsu Photonics, K. K. in March 2013.

Becoming a World-class Optical Base

It is desired that this R & D base, which has devices necessary for stepping into the untrodden field of wavelength, phase, and intensity of light, becomes the place where researchers work hard together without any barrier to work on the study of manipulating light freely beyond time and space, and consequently attract researchers of photonics from all over the world.