The latest survey by the education ministry's National Institute of Science and Technology Policy highlighted researchers' growing sense of crisis that Japan's basic science research is not producing internationally outstanding results. While the researchers are becoming more aware that results of the science research are insufficiently translated into technological innovation, their increasingly poor evaluation of the research environment points to a long-term reduction in government grants to universities and other public research institutions, manpower cuts in these institutions and increased workloads on researchers. The government should take their assessments seriously and review its policy in light of the perceived problems facing the nation's science research.
In its annual survey since 2016, the ministry's institute polled some 2,800 researchers at universities and public research institutes as well as in the corporate sector late last year. The results released last month were indexed in a 10-point system and the average was compared with figures from the previous year. The 2017 result showed the respondents' dismal assessments particularly on questions concerning basic research. To a question whether basic science research in Japan is producing enough internationally outstanding achievements, the average response among the university researchers was 4.1 points out of 10 — meaning "insufficient" — compared with 4.7 points in the 2016 survey. The assessment was also sluggish among corporate researchers at 4.0, down 0.5 points from the prior year.
In recent years, the government's policy on science and technology research — with its basic principle of "selection and concentration" — has placed emphasis on applied research and producing commercial benefits and generating new markets. The priority of government funding was on projects deemed likely to bring tangible results, while grants to support the foundations of research at national/public universities and institutions have been slashed. According to the survey, the researchers think that such a policy has resulted in a loss of diversity in scientific research, declining international presence of Japan's basic research as illustrated by the fall in the number of papers authored by Japanese researchers published in major science journals, and fewer internationally active Japanese researchers.