The current status of expert system development and related technologies in Japan

General trends and statistics obtained from responses to a questionnaire are reviewed, showing that more than 400 expert systems are now under development or in practical use in Japan. Three expert systems selected as representative examples from among planning-and-design-system candidates are described: IBM Japan´s Scheplan, Kayaba´s OHCS, and Hitachi´s automatic pipe-routing system for a power plant. Current Japanese research in related methodologies, including knowledge compilation, knowledge acquisition, generic methods for building expert systems, the automatic generation of task-oriented expert systems, and machine learning, is examined. It is noted that AI is spreading into almost every Japanese industry, and Japanese companies are seeking the most efficient way of introducing AI technologies, particularly expert systems.<>