Research into fundamental science that may reap little return in the short term would be left out in the cold if national universities are incorporated under a proposed law, Nobel laureate Masatoshi Koshiba told Kyodo News recently.
"There are cases when it takes 50 or 100 years for fundamental science to achieve results," said Koshiba, 76, joint recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics in 2002. "It would be troubling if everything is determined by whether profits will be made within five to six years.
"If (national universities) are incorporated and become financially independent, research that does not achieve returns within four to five years will unavoidably be left out in the cold," Koshiba said. "What will happen to work in the science and literature departments?