The Italian National Institute of Health has prepared a draft docu- 
ment detailing the functions of such a committee, but it has not yet been 
approved, in part as a result of uncertainty whether the Minister of 
Health or the Minister of Scientific Research should have the responsi- 
bility for such an initiative. 
Meanwhile, no experimentation is being conducted that would require 
containment measures beyond the minimum level, and for the present, the 
rules of safety generally applied in Italy under standard laboratory 
regulations are considered to be applicable. 
JAPAN 
In 1975 the Committee on Plasmid Research, chaired by Dr. Y. Tajima 
and composed entirely of biological scientists, was created in the Science 
Council of Japan under the jurisdiction of the National Committee of 
Biological Sciences. The Committee formed a Working Group on the Problems 
of Recombinant DNA, chaired by Dr. T. lino, which submitted in January 
1977 an interim report entitled General Principles for Recombinant 
DNA Research in Japan . The report, which was approved by the Committee 
and forwarded to the Council, recommends that: 
• a set of proposed safety standards (which consists of items from 
the U.S. and U.K. Guidelines) be adopted; 
• a Steering Committee for Gene Manipulation, composed of research- 
ers in the field, be created under supervision of the Council for 
the purpose of collecting information, revising the guidelines, 
and providing advice concerning their application; 
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