tokyo

Japan's science policy-makers are planning to make a statement of their priorities in science and technology in an attempt to safeguard funding for key research areas in government budgets. The move marks a departure from the government's traditional approach of spreading research grants thinly and evenly, and would help to identify research areas covered by different ministries and agencies.

Looking ahead: Japan's administrative reform committee (above) will determine the future organization of science advice. Credit: PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE

The content of the statement — based on a recent survey of science-related ministries and agencies — is currently being discussed by the policy committee of the Council for Science and Technology, the principal science policy-making body, which is chaired by the prime minister.

The policy committee aims to define a number of high-priority research fields that would receive a larger share of government research funds. These will probably include information sciences, genome research, and some areas that were not covered by the five-year plan for science and technology, which was launched in 1996, to double Japan's science spending to a total of ¥17 trillion (US$140 billion) by 2001.

The statement would be incorporated into guidelines on promoting science, and will be compiled by the end of this month, before ministries start drawing up their budget requests for the next fiscal year. According to the council, the statement will be reflected in the ‘special promotion’ funds in the budget for the fiscal year 2000.

Japanese researchers have often criticized the government's inability to adequately support high-priority research areas. For example, many blame Japan's poor track record in genome sequencing on the government's failure to tackle genome research on a national level (see Nature 399, 96; 1999). The new plan is intended to distribute research funds more effectively and to explore emerging research areas that need greater support.

According to Nobuhiro Muroya, deputy director of the planning and evaluation division of the Science and Technology Agency (STA), the statement would form an important basis for the second phase of the science and technology basic plan, which begins in April 2001 (see Nature 397, 638; 1999).

But he describes the attempt to specify the priorities in scientific research as “hardly straightforward”. He adds: “Unsurprisingly, there is strong resistance from areas which have been dropped from the priority list.”

The policy committee also faces a dilemma over how much its new policy should be reflected in future plans, given the impending restructuring of the council in 2001. This will transfer the council to the Cabinet Office, as part of the government's plan to improve the country's administration.

At present, the Science Council relies heavily on STA's administration. The changes would give it its own staff, enabling it to act as an independent body to coordinate all government science and technology.

Some committee members feel that important policy decisions should be postponed until the new council, which will have more authority and an active role in policy making, is formed in two years' time. But others emphasize that the planned statement should be considered as a long-term strategy, saying that the basic policies are unlikely to change under the new council.

“If we are to make a clear statement of priorities in science and technology research, this should become a permanent feature in the policy, rather than a one-off event for the next fiscal year,” said Hiroo Imura, former president of Kyoto University and chairman of the policy committee, at the committee's meeting last month.

But Imura admits that there is a limit to what can be decided under the domain of the existing council. “We hope that the new plan would at least be a step up from our previous policy,” he says.