Japan Proposes Doubling Funds Spent on R

The Japanese government decided Friday to double public investment in research and development, a move aimed at stemming long-simmering criticism that Japan has freeloaded off Western basic science while funneling its own money into proprietary corporate research.

In adopting a broad outline of science and technology policies for the next decade, the Japanese Cabinet called for the increase to occur “as soon as possible” but did not include a time table. The move, however, represented the first concrete commitment by the government to double its R&D; spending to $30 billion from the current $15 billion.

Japan’s public research spending now is 0.5% of gross national product, compared to the U.S. commitment of 1%.

If realized, Japan’s increased spending could open a treasure trove of new research dollars for the international scientific community--a particularly pressing need now that research budgets are shrinking in the United States and elsewhere.

“In Japan, basic research is weak compared to applied research, which has led to criticism that Japan is taking a free ride on the basic research produced by the U.S. and Europe,” said an official with the Science and Technology Agency. “We’re trying to correct this and contribute more to international society.”

However, the plan is likely to face bureaucratic battles among the various Japanese ministries over how and when to act on it. The Science and Technology Agency, for instance, believes that a 10-year time frame is too long to double the R&D; spending, and favors two to four years. The Ministry of Finance, holder of the public purse strings, will probably fight for a much longer time frame, officials said.

Martha Harris, director of the private, nonprofit National Research Council’s Office of Japan Affairs in Washington, welcomed the decision as an “important statement.” But she cautioned that the significance of the Cabinet action would depend on how much money the Japanese ultimately allocate for basic research, compared to industrial-oriented projects.

Until now, a whopping 80% of Japan’s research dollars have been provided by the private sector, compared to 55% for the United States. As a result, the vast majority of Japanese research has remained locked behind closed corporate doors.

Japan’s relatively limited public research has also tended to be narrowly focused on specific technologies, such as semiconductors or superconductivity, compared to more generic research favored in the West aimed at unraveling the riddles of the universe and expanding the pool of pure scientific knowledge.

The Japanese Cabinet decision stressed the need to increase basic research for the benefit of global society. But it did not specify how much of the new research money would go, for instance, to universities, where most fundamental--and internationally accessible--research is carried out.

But in one measure of its expanded public commitment, the government has allocated in this year’s budget $800 million over the next five years to rejuvenate university buildings, especially Tokyo University.

The government also said it would distribute money and research staff to the best institutes, injecting measures of incentive and competition into the public system. Most public dollars now are evenly distributed throughout the university system.

Another question is how much of the funding increase the Japanese will devote to international activities. The 10-year plan calls for an expansion of global research projects and increased international exchange of industry, government and academic officials.

It also specified as one research target global environmental problems, and said Japan was responsible for giving technological assistance to developing nations in Asia and the republics of the now defunct Soviet Union. But the plan gave no details.