Japan cuts budget while France’s rises
DOI: 10.1063/PT.4.0927
As the UK science community reels from steep budget cuts , other countries are facing unexpected financial pressures, and in some cases bonuses.
The French university sector is expected to receive an €11-billion (US$16-billion) windfall from a government initiative intended to create an “Ivy League” of research centers, reports NatureNews .
The fund is part of a €35 billion package announced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on 14 December. Sarkozy has indicated for weeks that he considers investment in research and development crucial for the long-term viability of France, particularly in light of the billion-dollar investment the US made in science as part of the stimulus package.
A shock to the system
The new Japanese government, which was elected in September—the first new government by a major opposition party in more than 50 years—campaigned on a platform of increased science spending only to announce drastic budget cuts of up to 50% to a number of high-profile science facilities and programs as part of a program to cut next year’s budget by ¥3 trillion (US$ 33.7 billion).
The cuts were planned by a new cabinet-level government advisory unit called the Government Revitalization Unit and chaired by the country’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama .
The cuts will hit Japan’s Subaru telescope in Hawaii, SPring-8 synchrotron in Harima, a planned $1.3 billion supercomputer that was destined to be the world’s fastest, neutrino research at the Super-Kamiokande detector, ocean drilling projects and basic grant programs.
A statement on the SPring-8 website says
“The working group of the Government Revitalization Unit, identifying wasteful spending, recommended that our budget request for the fiscal 2010 should be cut by between 1/3 and 1/2, and the Unit has agreed to respect the recommendations made by the working group on November 30, 2009.
“Under the circumstances, we are deeply concerned that if the budget is compiled according to the recommendations, the funding shortfall would seriously affect our users, possibly making it impossible for us to provide synchrotron radiation at all. We will do our best efforts to avoid such a situation.”
Fighting back
It did not take long for researchers at the facilities to start campaigning to get their funding restored.
Yoichiro Suzuki , the spokesperson for Super-Kamiokande, points out that the detector is expected to make several important future observations, beyond the previous discovery of the neutrino mass.“If the observations are stopped even for a short period by a budget cut, [Super-Kamiokande] may miss the possibility of the detection of the neutrinos from a supernova burst. Also, the quality of the detector may deteriorate.
Neutrino research in Japan, which has developed over the past 10 years or more to the top rank in the world, will be stopped and the researchers will disappear.
The drop will be fast.
Japan could quickly become a second- or third-class power in science. Once it falls, it will take another 10 or 20 years to catch up with the top level of the world.”
Four Nobel laureates and a Field’s medal winner argued against the cuts at a symposium at the University of Tokyo, and presented Hatoyama the next day with a statement signed by eight Japanese Nobel laureates warning that, “Weakening science and technology will lead to the decline of our resource-poor country.”
Last week, the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP), Japan’s highest science-policy-making body, proposed continued support for those projects and many others.
Final budget decisions will be made later this month, but Hatoyama has called the CSTP proposals “valuable opinions,” and said that he would “work to ensure they were reflected in the final budget.”
Paul Guinnessy
More about the authors
Paul Guinnessy, pguinnes@aip.org
