Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology introduced a new policy in response to the Chinese Communist Party’s Thousand Talents Program

Many Japanese researchers participate in China’s “Thousand Talents Program” to recruit scientific talent, causing concern to The Japanese government, intends to strengthen regulation.

Japanese media reported on Monday (January 25) that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) requires that from the year 2021, those who apply to the government for scientific research funding are obliged to declare the foreign funding they have received. The main applications for this year have been closed and the authorities are starting to review them.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the Japanese government is concerned about the outflow of technology and will draw up guidelines this year to require recipients of government research grants to declare the foreign funds they have received, their activities overseas, etc. The Japanese government approved, named “scientific research fee to help into the project” of the scientific research fee, mainly to subsidize researchers affiliated with domestic universities or research institutions, but does not include students; last year, more than 104,000 people applied, of which about 28,000 applications were approved, the total amount of funding of about 220 billion yen (16.4 billion Hong Kong dollars).

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology requires applicants for research grants to declare whether they have received foreign funding.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said that in order to avoid the concentration of research grants to specific researchers, applicants are required to declare if they receive other domestic funding, but currently there is no mechanism to grasp their acceptance of foreign funds. The authorities have decided to require applicants for research grants to declare whether they have received or are scheduled to receive foreign funding, including the content, amount, and period of research, starting this year, in April this year. Researchers who receive foreign funding will still be granted research grants, but if they are found to have misrepresented or concealed, they will be disqualified.