Status and first results of TAMA300

After I year of operation, the sensitivity of TAMA300 has been continuously improved and is now at 5 x 10(-21) /root Hz at 1 kHz, near the. design sen sitivity for the first phase. In four data taking runs, the longest period of continuous lock was longer than 12 h, with the best duty cycle reaching 23 out of 24-h. The analysis of these data showed that with the present sen sitivity, coalescing binaries within our galaxy could be detected. Lower no ise operation is expected in the near future. The LCGT project (large-scale cryogenic gravitational wave telescope) will apply for funding next year.