KAZ PROJECT

JST

JST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, under MEXT, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports Science and Technology was established in 1961 to promote the basic research in Japan. CREST, Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology is the most important and JST's signature project. Among 280 CREST projects are now going on; 21 projects including Prof. Shimizu's under Prof. Kaya's control are of the research area to address various environmental issues.

KEIO UNIVERSITY

Keio University is a private, co-educational university. More than thirty thousand students are studying at five sites of Keio University. With a history stretching back to 1858, Keio University is Japan's oldest institution of higher education, founded by Yukichi Fukuzawa, a highly respected intellectual leader of the era.

SFC, Shonan-Fujisawa Campus, was established in 1990 as Keio University's fifth site of academic endeavour. Five thousand students are studying at two faculties, Environmental Information and Policy Management together and the Graduate School of Media and Governance built upon this illustrious tradition as preparation to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

HIROSHI SHIMIZU

Born in 1947

Professor of the Faculty of Environmental Information, Keio University. His major research lab is in K-square Town campus where Keio has its high-tech research centre. He runs the Electric Vehicle Lab where 2 teaching staffs, two researching staffs, 3 part time assistants, 8 graduate students and 34 under-graduate students are working on electric vehicle research and development.

He started research and development into electric vehicles in 1978. He participated in 6 major projects to develop original designed electric vehicles. IZA, developed in 1991, held two world records with a maximum speed of 176 km/h and the maximum range per charge of 270km at a constant speed of 100km/hour. It has four in-wheel drive system. In 1997, he developed a two-seater small electric vehicle Luciole. It has two in-wheel drive system and a battery built in frame.

KAZ is the evolution of these 6 electric vehicles.