The "Atom Technology" project started in fiscal 1992 as one of MITI＇s 10 year projects, aims at systematically establishing technology for handling individual atoms and molecules on a solid surface or in a three-dimensional space, as a generic technology for various fields of industry. This project, closely adjacent to science, emphasizes the following three key focuses: atom manipulation, nanoscale self-organization, and critical-state phase control, with two basic approaches of in situ dynamical observation (experimental) as well as ab initio calculation (theoretical). In this article, several topics were picked up from recent activities at the Joint Research Center for Atom Technology (JRCAT) for Phase I of the initial 6 years (1992-1997) and some technical details were described: (1) ultrathin SiO2 on Si(001) surfaces; layer-by-layer oxidation, its kinetics, scanning reflection electron microscopy observation, and scanning tunneling microscopy observation of leakage sites; (2) growth and transport of structure-controlled SinHx+ clusters for deposition using a novel ion trap; and (3) colossal magnetoresistance and related phenomena in perovskite-type manganese oxides. Research plans for phase II (1998-2001) of the project will be also touched upon.