Tohoku University first candidate for huge Japan gov't research grants

Japanese universities have fallen behind overseas institutions in recent years.

The government is planning to raise 300 billion yen every year to provide tens of billions of yen in annual support to each of the designated universities.

There's money but what is the actual plan? Just provide them grant, just like J Govt always do?

Japanese universities have fallen behind overseas institutions in recent years.

Is it not the case that Japanese universities have never been the equal of those overseas

The template for a good university is not particularly complicated or difficult. Although money helps, it isn't the most important aspect. If you made a list of ways to do things well, government committees and year-long delays would not be high on it. And using the cash to buy in foreign (emeritus) talent is a bad way to go.

Roughly, what, $70 Million US? Kind of interesting, in my opinion, that a school in Tohoku is the first recipient.

But as the university needs to work out issues such as ways to increase its revenue, the ministry is calling for further improvements before its official designation.

The folks running the universities are academics! Good luck in them actually having to "work" with a business and try to make money!

It's often said that educators here in Japan are incapable of working in the private sector. Sorry, they are capable, but just not successful.

Japanese universities have fallen behind overseas institutions in recent years.

The University of Tokyo dropped from 35th to 39th place and Kyoto University fell from 61st to 68th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023. The two universities were the only Japanese institutions in the top 200.

And what makes the "Times" ranking the guidebook to the actual rankings?

Or maybe it's just the author, searching for a ranking list, to fit their own opinions perhaps?

According to QS World University Rankings 2024: Top global universities, Japan actually has 9 universities in the top 200, although none even manage to make it into the top 25!

https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2024?&region=Asia&countries=jp

As always the only thing the government ever does is throw money at the problem without going to the root cause. It's the academic environment. Japanese by birth Nobel laureates who are now in the U.S. have often said that if they stayed in Japan they would never have been able to conduct their research which resulted in the prize. Tohoku U is a fine school but it's not across the board, there are other schools who also excel in other fields, they should also have access to research funds. How about increasing grants to individual researchers? There are many brilliant scholars and researchers that are not at Tohoku, they need grants to help them further their research.

Good for Tohoku University.

What the government should be promoting is the International Linear Collider (ILC), which has been proposed to be constructed in Iwate, the prefecture just north of Miyagi. Tohoku University could have a major role in that. The ILC would bring much needed population and economic growth to this region, which was devastated by the 2011 earthquake. Scientists from around the world have been clamoring for approval by the Japanese government for this project, saying that Iwate is the best candidate site for the ILC. If approval doesn't come soon, they will start looking at other candidate sites, probably CERN.

Understood. Well, let's altogether publish any scientifical papers, but more than them. Then we are eligible for the big money shower. lol

If only they'd put in more effort to do background checks on those recipients of the research grants and the "research assistants" that they hire.

Don't forget the prc chinazi spy/university lecturer who was feeding the mainland with Japanese tech knowledge.

There is no point in doing govt research if you fail to safeguard that research.

Throwing good money after bad.

Very surprising to hear Japan has only 2 universities in the top 200. Tokyo at 39 and Kyoto at 68.

For comparison, Australia's top 4 universities sit at, 34 Melbourne Uni, 44 Monash Uni, 53 Queensland Uni and equal 54 Sydney Uni.

It would be great to have one in the top ten or twenty, but both Japan and Australia are falling short of that. More research funding is needed in both nations to keep up and ensure that they have some world leading research projects going on.

Despite their places in the world ranking, the research they have been doing is pretty decent and I don't think the ability of Japanese research is deteriorated than before.

However, the world's research capability has been advancing at a much faster pace than Japan because of I feel the Japanese introvert trait and short-sighted goal settings for required immediate results in economy.

Some universities such as Tohoku uni are still competitive. Hope the gov not only provides grants but also has long-term future-oriented policies.

Yeah well the rankings are western English speaking world centric for a start, so academic institutions are already at a disadvantage to begin with. Most Japanese researchers publish in Japanese and don't speak English.

To increasing their rankings, institutions here should encourage papers to be published in English for a start. Also, they need to teach more in English, and hire academics from around the world with the possibility of tenure. In other words: internationalisation, not just in name.

@Peter14 It looks like you are using The Times rankings.

Meanwhile China has two in the top twenty. The University of Hong Kong is rated higher than Todai as well.

Meanwhile China has two in the top twenty

It's easy to be in the top twenty when your students and academic staff constantly STEAL data from other universities worldwide and then claim it as your own.

Also, many Western universities have been bought off with ccp blood money. Case in point, the so-called "confucious institutes" that have infested many Western universities.

That's an interesting take. Alternatively, perhaps all the Chinese PhD candidates doing cutting edge research in the US, UK, Australia and other universities around the world translates into better research results when they return home and therefore higher rankings.

Very surprising to hear Japan has only 2 universities in the top 200. Tokyo at 39 and Kyoto at 68.

How reliable is the Times ranking? Other sources put at least 5 to as many as 10 in the top 200.