Japanese Government wants academics collaborating on defence research

The government is compiling a plan to make it easier for university researchers and national research and development agencies to engage in defence work.

A main pillar will be establishing research bases with a high degree of security capabilities.

The proposal will be included in the Comprehensive Innovation Strategy 2026 to be approved soon by the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation chaired by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

More detailed measures will be decided by the end of the year that are in line with revisions to the three documents related to national security.

In the five-year plan for science and technology policy approved by the government in March, the government called for organic cooperation with national security and encouraged greater participation from researchers at universities on defense research.

The comprehensive plan spells out more specific steps, such as promoting dual-use research and development and using national security funds for science and technology.

To establish research bases at universities and national agencies, the plan calls for building separate facilities with tighter entrance security measures to prevent leakage of advanced technology and defense information.

Business organizations and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have called for a framework to support researchers at universities who have tended to reject dual-use research in the past, largely due to academics being mobilized during World War II.

Because of that history, the Science Council of Japan and other organisations have taken a more cautious approach to cooperation.

The Science Council of Japan, a representative body of leading scientists, is one body that has repeatedly issued a statement opposing war-related research.

-The Asahi Shimbun