Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said support for young scientists and foreign researchers should be bolstered to help maintain Japan's status as one of the world's leading countries in science and technology.

"Unless Japan overcomes the tendency of leaving young people out in the cold and accepting only a limited number of foreign people, we will not be able to lead the world in the field of science and technology," Hatoyama said.

Hatoyama's remarks at a meeting Wednesday of the Council for Science and Technology Policy came after a government panel recently called for reductions in funding for young and foreign researchers in a review of budget requests for next year.

The move by the Government Revitalization Unit, tasked with cutting wasteful spending under the new government led by the Democratic Party of Japan, stirred an outcry from a host of scientists, including Nobel Prize laureates.

In Wednesday's meeting of the council, participants came up with a priority list of budget allocations for science and technology programs, only to produce a result that is largely different from the outcome of the revitalization unit's review.