Japan’s dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is out to crimp the independence of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ)—the country’s national science academy. With the LDP leading the country’s ruling coalition, Japan’s cabinet on Friday approved a bill that would replace the current Science Council—an independent public entity that manages its own affairs—with a special corporation subject to increased government oversight.
The proposal, which has drawn fierce opposition from many researchers, must be approved by the country’s legislature and the council’s supporters are cautiously optimistic that lawmakers in Japan’s Parliament will defeat it. A vote is expected within weeks.
Skirmishes between the LDP and the SCJ have increased in recent years. One point of conflict is the SCJ’s opposition to academics conducting research into military or dual-use technologies, something the LDP and some business sectors favor. The council’s dim view of military research is a legacy of its founding after World War II, when antiwar sentiment ran high.
Like its national science academy counterparts elsewhere, SCJ makes policy recommendations, promotes scientific literacy and international cooperation, and represents the interests of some 870,000 scholars from all academic disciplines. In 2020, then–Prime Minister and LDP President Yoshihide Suga broke with tradition and refused to appoint six of the 105 SCJ-nominated scholars to the council’s 210 member General Assembly.
Suga never explained why, but the six academics—social scientists, lawyers and humanities specialists—had all criticized LDP policies. The LDP later went a step further, establishing a panel under the Cabinet Office charged with generating proposals for reforming the council. Four years of deliberation produced the legislation that the Cabinet advanced last week.
The bill calls for turning the SCJ into a public corporation with the government providing the financial support it deems necessary, a clause critics fear opens the door to financial pressure. The council currently gets about 1 billion yen ($6.8 million) in annual public funding.
Under the new scheme, the prime minister will have the power to appoint two independent auditors to oversee financial matters and to also select five to seven members from outside the SCJ to serve on an evaluation committee to review council activities and provide advice. Yet another committee, made up of outsiders picked by the SCJ president, will advise on General Assembly candidates.
The bill “poses a clear threat to the SCJ’s independence and autonomy,” six former council presidents wrote in an 18 February statement after the bill was unveiled. They warned that the SCJ would lose the respect of the global scientific community and its ability to fulfill its mission.
There is growing public opposition to the new legislation, says Mitsunori Tarao, an environmental microbiologist at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and a member of a group campaigning against it. In an editorial, The Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s leading newspapers, wrote that the bill threatens academic freedom and is “potentially undermining [the council’s] ability to play a meaningful role in both national and societal interests.” The editorial noted that a previous policy that turned Japan’s national universities into special corporations “resulted in increased government constraints, hindered their research activities, and ultimately diminished their research capabilities—a mistake that must not be repeated.” An online petition opposing the bill has garnered nearly 22,000 signatures.
The LDP currently holds a plurality but not a majority of the seats in the lower house of the legislature. It will need the support of minor parties to pass the legislation.
