Conceptual design studies of the Fusion Experimental Reactor (FER) have been conducted at JAERI in line with a long-range plan for fusion reactor development laid out in the long-term program of the Atomic Energy Commission issued in 1982. The FER succeeding the tokamak device JT-60 is a tokamak reactor with a major mission of realizing a self-ignited long-burning DT plasma and demonstrating engineering feasibility. The paper describes recent developments of the FER design concept.