This paper examines the changing role of the Central Research Laboratory 中央試驗所 from its early beginning until the Sino-Japanese War. The Central Research Laboratory was the only institute of industrial technology during the Japanese colonial period in Korea. In the 1910s and the 1920s, the Central Research Laboratory mainly focused on the research of handicrafts. In the mid-1930s, however, the Central Research Laboratory changed main research focus from handicrafts to the natural resources of colonial Korea. This shift was not led by the Government-General 朝鮮總督府, but by the Central Research Laboratory, which was largely supported by industry organizations including the Keijo Chamber of Commerce & Industry 京城商工會議所. The Government-General took no interest in the Central Research Laboratory, and even decided to abolish it in 1931. To overcome the crisis, the Central Research Laboratory began concentrating on natural resources. It stressed the usefulness of natural resources, and aimed to attract Japanese enterprises to colonial Korea. From this change of the main work, the Central Research Laboratory was developed into the central institute of the industrialization in colonial Korea. In the end, the Central Research Laboratory played the leading role in surveying natural resources in “the Industrialization of Joseon” in the mid-1930s.