Is Japan’s research decline turning a corner? (original) (raw)

Efforts on funding and helping early-career researchers could be bearing fruit, but major challenges remain.

By

  1. Benjamin Plackett
    1. Benjamin Plackett is a senior editor at Nature Index.

Nature Index supplements on Japan over the past decade have documented the country’s ongoing struggles to compete globally in high-quality research. The latest data are no exception: the nation’s adjusted Share in the Nature Index fell to 3,185 in 2021, a level that represented just 12.6% of Asia Pacific output, down from 21.4% in 2015. There are rumblings, however, of a potential rebound. The data suggest there is light at the end of the tunnel as Japanese scientists show a stronger performance in life sciences, where adjusted Share remained higher in 2021 than in 2019.

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Nature 615, S47 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00656-3

This article is part of Nature Index 2023 Japan, an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

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