Tokyo

Japan's finance ministry is set to pull the plug on a ¥40-billion (US$360-million) project to build a research ship for Antarctic exploration.

Ministry officials say that the plan lacks the popular appeal to justify its cost. But Earth scientists contend that the ship is essential to Japan's Antarctic research programme. On 7 November, researchers were joined by a range of celebrities at a rally in Tokyo in support of the project.

The country's current ice-breaking boat, the 21-year-old Shirase, has only about four years of working life left, researchers argue. But the finance ministry is reluctant to fund a replacement — despite pleas from the Council for Science and Technology Policy, Japan's highest science-policy body, which restated its support for the ship on 17 October.

Finance-ministry officials say that next year's budget, to be announced next month, is unlikely to include initial funding for the ship. “We don't think the Antarctic programme has the nation's understanding and support to justify the large budget,” says Hideaki Imamura, deputy budget director at the finance ministry.

Other projects, such as the ¥60-billion Earth-drilling ship, Chikyu, which is currently under construction, seem to have overstretched the resources available for ocean research in Japan.

Loss of the ice-breaker would impair international research in Antarctica, says Chris Rapley, director of the British Antarctic Survey. Even a delay would damage programmes that depend on continuously collected data, says Okitsugu Watanabe, director-general of the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo. But he concedes that Japanese Antarctic research could continue without the new ship. “We could negotiate to use ships from other countries,” he says.