Government-Supported Research

Another way that intellectuals, particularly academic intellectuals, make some input into consideration of public-policy issues is through research commissioned or supported by the government. Although the volume of Japanese governmental support for outside research is not as great as the American, the outlay for research and development in all fields is rising rapidly. As illustrated in Table 6, for example, in 1970 Japan spent ¥217.4 billion (¥152 billion from the government; the rest from private sources) for the support of university research in science, engineering, agriculture, and medicine.^[27] The corresponding American figure is $2.6 billion. On a per capita GNP basis, however, this figure is much better than it appears: it is certainly better than in many European countries, including the United Kingdom; it is 22.5 percent higher than the preceding year in Japan; and it is on a more steeply rising curve than the American figure.

Although Japan was rather a slow starter in research and development, the investment from both public and private sources has been rising

[27] About $604 million at the 360–1 exchange rate, which prevailed in 1970.

sharply. In 1970, total research expenditures reached ¥1,195.3 billion^[28] —one-quarter from government and three-quarters from private sources (see Table 6). The governmental budget for the promotion of science and technology in 1971, which came to ¥305.5 billion, was 15 percent higher than in 1969 and 4.9 times higher than in 1961. National budgets for all varieties of research show a sharp unward trend. University research expenditures rose over 80 percent between 1967 and 1971. Support for relatively high priority research areas shows steep rises in the past few years: atomic power research, up 57 percent from 1969 to 1970; space research, up 158 percent from 1967 to 1970; and oceanography, up almost 50 percent in one year. Government subsidies and contract research funds for scientific and technological research went up 27 percent in the two years between 1969 and 1971.

Although the funds available for social scientific research are much less generous than for pure sciences and technology (18 percent of all researchers, but only 8 percent of total research expenditures in 1971), they have also been going up proportionately in both commissioned research as well as grants and subsidies. Virtually all government departments give such support, although they vary considerably according to their particular area of operation. The greatest support for social scientific research comes from the Ministry of Education, the Economic Planning Agency, and the Prime Minister's Office.

Government research funds are available to scholars in several forms. A number of government agencies offer pure research grants. The ministries also have research funds available in one form or another through the research institutes attached to them or through their administrative branches. General support grants may be made to scholars on application for any worthwhile project; or the ministry may invite application only in specified fields. Apart from outright grants, ministries may also give selective support for fields in which they have a particular interest and invite scholars to conduct research that has some relation to their own areas of program responsibility.