[Danieru]

This article seems interested in suggestion Japan abandon its unique approach and adopt the approach used by other nations. That is silly.

Japan is one of the foremost funders of deep research. It funds large physics experiments. It has a long history of semiconductor innovations. MEXT scholarships have proven a brilliant method to attract smart men and women from around the world.

Here in Touhoku I've met so many bright international students on MEXT scholarships doing research within those exact project-funded teams. Switching to person-focused funding would be silly, do you really think a smart guy from Congo is going to be able to win funding? That Japan has a system where the product/team can focus on an established topic, then backfill with smart researches, is a strength not a weakness.

Of course Nature is in the business of publishing papers, not science. So it makes sense they would be blind to the reality of science: you measure it in results not papers. The academics I know are all focused on achieve specific goals, they rarely talk about the papers in the way the Canadian Acedemics I know did back home. Think "I want to automate boar trap monitoring so that farmers do not need to check it everytime, and so that non-boars do not get trapped". That is the sort of highly practical research you get when a supervisor knows their field and knows their country. It might not pay off in papers, but it will pay off for Japan as a country.

The world should be taking lessons from Japan, not the other way around. Team based funding. Scholarships for bright students from any country. Deep funding for physical research other than just ITER and LHC.

[Prickle]

That's interesting.

Japanese discussions I have had, and articles in Japanese seem to say the opposite. That Japan needs to invest more; because many talented Japanese researchers are emigrating to the USA or China.

The main topic that comes up is that both China and the USA provide better wages, as well as greater funding for projects overall.

But I'm just a local, and certainly not a researcher. Thanks for your POV!

[rtpg]

Are talented Japanese researchers emigrating to China? Not that I don't think there's good work going on there, but my impression from the outside is it's extremely competitive.

I definitely knew a lot of people who end up heading over to the US though. Lot of people who come back because living in the US is miserable for a lot of em though! The salary gap is huge (especially with the exchange rate) but at the end of the day Tokyo in particular has a lot going for it.

I really like Japan uni's being fairly researched focused, though. It's to the point where universities with exchanges with Japanese universities were complaining because people in their home countries had credit requirements for Masters students but Japanese unis were like "I mean you're a Masters student, go do research and take a couple classes. But mainly do research". At least that's what I was told.

But at the end of the day research labs in Japan can't escape general work culture pressures of the country. A certain very famous prolific architect gets all his work done by farming it out to his masters students at the university. Professors in many labs basically only live and breath the academic life, so graduate students are just constantly being asked to be in "work mode". Just no break whatsoever. Hell of a lot of churning yet going nowhere. Might be the case in academia elsewhere but I feel like people at least get a bit more vacation time.

All of that, and you're paying for the privilege as a masters student!

[Danieru]

To be honest, those are all valid points which I think are true. I've never met an academic who thinks their country should reduce science funding. And the personal incentives do push researchers overseas for higher wages.

Personally though, I think how a country uses the money dominates over how much. Most countries have a pretty consistent level of funding. Sure some countries might double others, but overall funding tends to follow GDP. No country is spending 10%+ of GDP on research, nor do I think is that justifiable.

Thus the differences come from effectiveness of spend, not volume. Japan has an advantage here in the low English proficiency: you cannot be headhunted by the Americans if you cannot speak English. Thus when Japan does focus on specializations, as it did in the past with semiconductors, those researchers cannot be headhunted away.

[corimaith]

Probably to note that in Asia, professors are generally expected to retire at 60, with only very rare exceptions.

[gwervc]

It's true tho that Japanese universities have a problem with labs communication. In the former university I was a MEXT student in, there was at least three labs that could have collaborated on topics that my lab was focused one. Granted, one professor welcomed me in his lab to do some stuffs with his students. But otherwise it was like little fiefdoms taking pride in doing things alone. This is contrasting with what's going on (at least in intention) in French research.

[jltsiren]

I don't think that's fundamentally different from the US model.

While some countries have general funding calls where individual PIs can request funding for basically anything, the US model is based on large decentralized projects. Some academics spend a few years at funding agencies, identifying topics that could benefit from focused research. Then the agency issues a funding call, inviting applications from PIs who believe they can contribute. With some agencies such as NSF, this structure is more nominal, as individual grants are usually too small to hire permanent staff. But others such as NIH award larger grants, which make hiring professional researchers and support staff possible.

The fundamental issue with goal-oriented research is that it will narrow your vision. Topics don't get funded if there are no reasonable expectations that the idea will work and be beneficial. But that leaves the academia in an awkward position. You want topics that are promising enough to get funded but not so promising that the industry will also pursue them with better funding and higher salaries.

Goal-oriented research needs to be balanced with curiosity-driven research. Research focused on things the researchers find interesting, without any expectation that it will be beneficial to someone. Most of the time it won't be beneficial, but occasionally you get unexpected breakthroughs.

[downrightmike]

We wouldn't have blue leds if the Japanese used the American model

[pjc50]

How much of the US structure is still in place and unaffected by EOs?

[Dracophoenix]

>The academics I know are all focused on achieve specific goals, they rarely talk about the papers in the way the Canadian Acedemics I know did back home. Think "I want to automate boar trap monitoring so that farmers do not need to check it everytime, and so that non-boars do not get trapped".

I guess one of the bigger risks of doing science the Japanese way would be the development of pet projects and tunnel vision leading to dead-ends. This is by no means limited to Japan, but the number of cases where this has happened (hydrogen fuel cells, Honda robots, TRON OS) are notable.

Main topic aside, what's your position on research in Tsukuba? I've read several articles suggesting it's become a waste of money, infrastructure, and manpower as a number of labs (aside from JAXA) and private research firms (mainly in semi conductors) have either shuttered or moved elsewhere (mainly Tokyo). While Tsukuba may be a bit out of your way in both location and relevant subject matter, I would appreciate any insight you might have.

[teleforce]

> Of course Nature is in the business of publishing papers, not science

The irony of the statement perhaps can be extended, Science (journal) is in the business of publishing papers, not science

[Dalewyn]

>Japan is one of the foremost funders of deep research.

Perhaps they were once upon a time, it's questionable if they still are today.

And anyway, that's not even the real problem Japan's R&D world has: The real problem is that Japan can't bring products to market. If you can't make some money your R&D is going to eventually run out of gas and die.

Japan is also poorer than its financials might suggest. Japanese society shuns pioneering, the road not yet taken might as well be the plague; everyone wants to be #2 or lower, not #1. This means a lot of Japanese capital ends up sitting around doing nothing besides accruing petty interest, only a small fraction gets budgeted for pioneering into the new and the unknown after significant disparagement.