Faced with the prospect of significant reductions in science funding by Japan’s central government, leading scientists have expressed concern about the effect on the nation’s nascent science globalization effort.

“Just two years ago, with great fanfare, the Japanese government announced its intention to globalize our nation’s science,” said Professor Hitoshi Murayama, MacAdams Professor of Physics at University of California at Berkeley and the founding director of the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo in Kashiwa. “Now it is reversing its policy to significantly reduce or cancel much of its globalization effort in science.” 

Launched on October 1, 2007, Japan’s World Premier International Research Center Initiative program, or WPI, created five new international centers for scientific research in Japan. The centers are mandated to employ at least 30 percent non-Japanese scientists, use English as their official language, promote interdisciplinary research, and break down the language and cultural barriers between Japanese and worldwide scientific communities.

Now, budget cuts proposed by Japan’s new federal government, which took office in September, are poised to make steep reductions in support for Japanese scientific research, including the WPI. A newly instituted “Government Revitalization Unit” has begun public hearings to review more than 400 government-funded research programs. A committee consisting of politicians, industrialists and a small number of academics judge the effectiveness of each program and recommend either termination or reduction in funding by a half or a third.

“The Minister of Finance has announced that the Ministry will take very seriously the recommendations of this committee, which consists mostly of nonscientists,” Murayama said. The committee has already recommended significant reductions in funding for programs that include support for young scientists, female scientists, interdisciplinary research centers, and non-Japanese scientists at WPI centers. 

“With the reduction by 30 to 50 percent, or in some cases complete and abrupt terminations,” Murayama said, “the government will be sending talented scientists onto the street. And the cuts won’t stop with WPI. More discussions on significant cuts are apparently on their way.” 

The WPI program has attracted significant attention from scientists and governments worldwide.　 Already 41 out of 72 full-time scientific members of IPMU are foreign citizens. Within its scant two years of operation, IPMU scientists have been recognized by 10 prizes and awards, and are involved in many new projects to investigate the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

From a (date) article in the US journal Physics Today: “Japan aims to internationalize its science enterprise. Money and bows to other cultures… are cultivating good science and attracting leading scientists.”　

The Japanese Ministry of Education is soliciting input from the worldwide scientific community about the committee's recommendations.

Messages addressed to

nak-got_at_mext.go.jp

will reach Senior Vice Minister Masaharu Nakagawa and Vice Minister Hitoshi Goto.

Concerning the WPI program, the subject line should read “No. 14, WPI”

The subject line allows them to track different programs; the WPI program is the 14th item on their list. 

For other programs recommended for cancellation or reduction, see (only in Japanese)