Research misconduct at a leading iPS cell research institute, headed by Nobel Prize winner Shinya Yamanaka, has once again shaken confidence in the quality of Japan's science.

But experts contacted by The Japan Times on Tuesday said that unstable employment conditions faced by scientists are behind the seemingly endless string of research-related scandals in the nation.

Kyoto University announced Monday that Kohei Yamamizu, 36 — a specially appointed assistant professor at its Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) who was involved in research to generate a brain structure in vitro using iPS cells — had falsified 11 of 12 figures used in his paper that was published last year in the U.S. academic journal Stem Cell Reports.