The deficit in Japanese public finance, one of rationales for administrative reform, is growing serious as in other industrial countries. The administrative reform will involve the management of national research institutes, of which the representatives has been participating in the Administrative Reform Council. A proposal has been made to reorganize the national research institutes as agencies, apparently conceived according to the British precedent. The author has reviewed the administrative systems of national research institutes in some other countries. The survey shows that the institutes controlled by ministries related to industrial policy, as in Britain, New Zealand and Australia, are focus of serious discussions for privatization, while no such move is seen for institute under control of governmental agencies for education and science. This suggests that affinity of research institutes to the industry tends to suggest privatization. Similar proposal will probably be made for the Japanese system in which the Ministries of International Trade and Industry and of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have their own research institutes.