After losing World War II, Japan decided to pursue pacifism under a war-renouncing Constitution, and its scientists vowed to avoid military research in repentance for cooperating with the military.
But this long-held position is being complicated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policy of luring universities into developing dual-use technologies at a time when regional security is undergoing rapid changes.
To push universities in that direction, the Defense Ministry's technology agency set up the National Security Technology Research Promotion Fund with ¥300 million ($2.7 million) in fiscal 2015 to finance basic research into technologies with both civil and military applications.