``Japanese research is no longer world-class,'' the scientific journal Nature points out.
The scientific journal
Japanese research is no longer world class — here's why
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03290-1
According to a report released by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on October 25, 2023, Japan's contribution to world-class research is declining, despite having one of the world's largest research communities. It seems that it is continuing.
Masanuki Igami , director of the Center for Science and Technology Forecasting and Policy Base Research at the National Institute for Science and Technology Policy, a research institute under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology , says, ``Japan's current research environment is far from ideal. 'We have a long way to go and it's unsustainable. We need to improve the research environment,' he said, emphasizing the need to improve the research environment in order for Japan to improve its global standing.
According to a report by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan has the third largest number of researchers in the world after China and the United States. However, Japanese researchers are not producing the same level of impactful research as they did 20 years ago. The global share of Japanese research papers, which are in the top 10% of the most cited papers, has fallen from 6% to 2%, raising concerns about the decline in Japan's international standing.
The graph below summarizes the number of papers published in each country from 2019 to 2021. The number of papers published by Japanese researchers is the fifth highest in the world, but the number of research papers that are in the top 10% of citations falls to 13th place.
Mr. Igami said, ``It's not that the productivity of Japanese researchers has declined, but that the research environment in other countries has improved significantly over the past few decades.'' It is pointed out that it is not.
Regarding the reason why Japanese research is contributing less compared to the rest of the world, Mr. Igami said, ``Over the past 20 years, research expenditures in the university sector have increased by approximately 80% in the United States and Germany, 40% in France, 300% in South Korea, China's spending has increased by over 900%, while Japan's spending has only increased by 10%.
But even if researchers receive more funding, it may still be difficult to produce high-impact research because Japanese scientists have less time to spend on actual research, Igami said. According to a 2020 analysis by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the proportion of time university researchers spend on scientific research decreased from 47% to 33% from 2002 to 2018.
Regarding this, Mr. Igami said, ``University researchers are increasingly expected to take on diverse roles in teaching, collaborating with industry, and engaging with the community. 'Young researchers spend a lot of time doing clinical work. Universities have the advantage of contributing to society in various ways, but the time they can spend on research is limited.'
The graph below summarizes the number of scientific papers published in Japan. The top graph shows the number of publications from 2008 to 2010, and the bottom graph shows the number of publications from 2018 to 2020. During the same period, the share of Japanese papers among papers published worldwide decreased from 6% to less than 4%. doing.
Wataru Iwasaki, a computational biologist at the University of Tokyo and a representative of young researchers at the Science Council of Japan, is calling for an increase in the number of support staff, such as administrative staff and laboratory technicians, in addition to researchers. In fact, there is only one engineer for every 20 researchers at Japanese universities, which is significantly lower than in other countries.
In Japan's traditional laboratory structure, senior faculty manage research direction and resources, with junior faculty often playing supporting roles. For example, Tohoku University, which was selected as a recipient of Japan's new university endowment, has committed to appointing more young researchers as principal investigators. But without support staff, the suddenly gained autonomy can be counterproductive for young researchers. Looking back at the time when he was appointed principal investigator, Ono said that even though he had no experience running a research lab, he relied on the students to follow his instructions without any support from experts. He says that while he was able to advance his research, he also had to achieve his own research goals. Regarding his experience at the time, Ono said, 'It was overwhelming. The anxiety that came with it was not constructive for attempting research that would have a long-term impact.'
Igami noted that seeing lab members struggle with increasing seniority may deter young researchers from pursuing careers in research. The number of doctoral students has declined by 21% over the past two years, so attracting more doctoral students to the lab with more research experience than undergraduate or master's students will be a challenge for Japan. Igami said this is critical to fostering research that has greater impact.
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