Last year’s reported decline in Japan’s scientific output (see IBO 4/15/17) has continued, with a further 3.7% drop in the country’s contributions, adding to the 19.6% drop between 2012 and 2016. China’s rapid rise in scientific research and publications has impacted Japan’s ranking, as has the lack of scientific budgets, investments and resources in Japan in comparison to China.

Increasing research productivity is one solution to halting the continuing decline. When examining the country’s performance in relation to its publication volume, as per Nature’s weighted fractional count in the Nature Index, Japan ranks 5th in the world for top-quality scientific output.

On the other hand, Japan ranks 13th in regards to the amount of top-quality research per R&D dollars invested compared to other developed countries for which OECD R&D data is available. To tackle this, there has been a slow rise in university management reform, aimed at changing cultural attitudes toward academic research and improving management strategies. Key issues in academic research organizations include inflexibility in research projects and employee management.

The Japanese government plans to increase R&D spending from 0.65% to 1.0% of GDP by 2020, which would equal an investment of ¥900 billion ($8 billion) over the next three years.

Source: Nature