Wednesday, July 11, 2018    18:30-20:00

Kazumigaseki Knowledge Square Expert Club

Mr. Keita NAKAZAWA

Director

Science Policy Division

Science Policy Bureau

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)

Mr. Nakazawa showed the current Japanese science and technology figures. The number of papers produced has been flat for the past 15 years, while that in other major nations has been increasing. This means that the share of Japanese papers in the world map has been decreasing. The government S&T budget has been stagnant compared with other major nations. The number of students who move on to Ph.D. programs has been decreasing since 2006, while the number of workers to be enrolled in Ph.D. programs has been increasing. Also pointed were the decreasing number of researchers going abroad to do research; continuing low ratio of women researchers; and slowly decreasing hours researchers devote to their research. As the editor of the Japanese S&T White Paper-2018, he thus introduced the issues Japan is facing in S&T.

 

The discussions followed the above talk included comments like “the decreasing number of researchers going abroad for research may have invited the decline in the production of internationally co-authored papers, which may have caused the researchers miss the opportunity to catch up the world research trends, which then may have declined Japan’s research capability. This may have occurred cyclically,“ and “the financial supports to those who have finished Ph.D. programs are not sufficient, which might eventually discourage the students from moving on to be enrolled in Ph.D. programs.”

 

As above, the seminar presented that the working-level S&T policymaking officials are stuck and trying to solve the issues together with all concerned.