Purpose

The decision to build Tsukuba Science City was made in september 1963, based on an understanding reached at a Cabinet meeting. The construction of the facilities of about forty national experimental and research institutions, national universities, etc. was for the most part completed by March,1980.
Since then, along with the steady progress of the construction of various urban facilities, private sector companies have actively begun moving into the business parks in the surrounding area. The population of Tsukuba Science City has now reached 200,000 and with roughly 300 national and private research institutions and corporations employing approximately 13,000 scientists, it has become Japan's largest research and development center.

There were two purposes in building Tsukuba Science City:
One was to meet the needs of the times for the promotion of science and technology and the improvement of higher education. That is, to build up a base for carrying out high-level research and education --- a base whose nucleus consists of the national experimental and research institutions moved here from Tokyo and its environs, and the newly established University of Tsukuba --- and to develop an environment suitable for such a base.
The other purpose was to cope with the overcrowded conditions in Tokyo.
In other words, the goal was to move the national experimental and research institutions and educational institutions which did not necessarily have to be located in Tokyo to Tsukuba Science City, to ease the excessive concentration of population in the built-up areas of the metropolitan area in an orderly fashion, while at the same time promoting proper use of the sites of the former institutions, thus contributing to the balanced growth of the capital region.