Transition management of a risky technology: Case of small unmanned aerial vehicles

Taking the Technology Innovation System (TIS) of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (sUAV) in Japan as a case, we extend the TIS framework to understand and manage the transition of risky technologies. In Japan, the environment for sUAV was dramatically changed in 2015 due to an incident of sUAV at the official residence of the Prime Minister of Japan. In December 2015, while amendment of Civil Aeronautics Act (Act) to include sUAV in the scope took effect, the Public-Private council (Council) for improvement of the environment concerning to sUAV business was formed. This paper assumes the Council reflects the TIS of sUAV in Japan and analyses the discourse at the Council to understand the status of the sUAV TIS. Then we discuss how we can manage the transition.