Molecular Technology is a newly developed research field supported through Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) research funding programs. These programs aim to establish an innovative research field that harnesses the characteristics of molecules to enable new scientific and commercial applications. It is our great pleasure to publish this book, with the ambition that it will develop both an understanding of and further support for this new research field within the research and student community.

Molecular Technology as introduced in this book began in 2012 as a research area within JST's Strategic Basic Research Programs. JST is an advanced network‐based research institution that promotes state‐of‐the‐art R&D projects and leads the way in the cocreation of future innovation in tandem with wider society. JST develops a wide range of funding programs related to the promotion of scientific and technological innovation, which include strategy planning, target‐driven basic research, and promotion of research and development.

Various research projects focused on Molecular Technology are currently underway within JST's Strategic Basic Research Programs:

• The team‐based research program “CREST (Core Research for Evolutionary Science and Technology)”
• The individual research program “PRESTO (Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology).”

Dr Yamamoto (CREST) and Dr Kato (PREST) manage the Molecular Technology Research Area as research supervisors.

In addition, JST's Strategic International Collaborative Research Program promotes research projects in the area of Molecular Technology, including ongoing cooperation with L'Agence nationale de la recherche (The French National Research Agency, ANR).

A wide range of researchers from young to senior across the fields from green science, life science, and energy are participating in successful research aimed at establishing the new field of Molecular Technology. They are already producing excellent research results, and it is our hope that these will develop into technologies capable of initiating a new era in energy, green, and life sciences.

I encourage you to read not only researchers in related fields but also look more broadly to researchers working in other fields. Inspired by this book, I look forward to emerging new research fields and seeds toward future innovation.