On April 11, the public broadcaster NHK's program "Close-up Gendai (Current Affairs)" took up the issue of the International Science Olympiads (ISOs) for middle- and high-school students. The competition tests knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, informatics, astronomy and other areas of science. National rankings are based on average scores attained by students.
In the 2006 ISOs, China placed first in all subjects. Japan was far behind China and South Korea. China, South Korea and Vietnam are pushing policies of nurturing geniuses in sciences by providing economic aid and other benefits to participants in the ISOs.
Under the government's "income-doubling policy" launched in 1960, Japan promoted the development of science and technology, and rapidly increased the admission quotas at national universities' engineering departments. The fiscal 1956 Japanese economic white paper had said the domestic economy, which had been growing under the slogan of postwar reconstruction, should be boosted further by "innovation and transformation."