Our mission is to develop effective pest control technologies by a prediction system when and where pests that fly from overseas such as mainland China and the Philippines and cause damage to crops in Japan and elucidate the conditions of pests lead to outbreak in Japan. In particular, with regard to immigrant rice planthoppers such as the brown planthopper, we are vigorously carrying out international joint research with China and Vietnam, where are immigrant source area, and are developing and disseminating pest control technologies to prevent the occurrence of planthoppers' outbreak. We are also focusing on improving accuracy of immigrant prediction systems and outbreak prediction technologies in the rice planthoppers in Japan. In addition, in order to develop control technology for the Spodoptera frugiperda, which was newly invaded into Japan in 2019, and caused damage mainly to forage crops, we started joint research with prefectrural research institution and universities. We are promptly responding to urgent issues, such as quickly reflecting the research results in the control manual published by the Plant Protection Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. We are also conducting research with the aim of developing pest behavior control technology and outbreak prediction technologies using completely new methods such as physical methods using ultrasonic waves and lasers, or chemical information such as odors that are involved in communication between insects and plants.
