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PART Recent Trends and Developments in Government Policies in Education, Science and Culture

Japan's system of scientific research organizations is comprised of university faculties, graduate schools, national inter-university research institutes, research institutes attached to universities, research institutes attached to university faculties as well as research institutes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and research institutes founded by non-profit scientific research corporations. Recently with the means required for conducting research becoming larger-scale and more sophisticated, with the increasing scale of research projects, and with the marked increase in the necessity for promoting joint-research in many research fields, the Ministry has placed priority on improving systems for joint-use of facilities, equipment etc. and is promoting their upgrading and enrichment.

Furthermore in order to cope with expansion and other changes in interdisciplinary areas which accompany the development of scientific research, the Ministry is striving to activate these research organizations and make them more flexible.

The various types of professional academic associations are organizations which transcend the boundaries of individual universities' research organizations. As groups voluntarily comprised of researchers in common fields they play an significant role in research evaluation, information exchange and as places for interpersonal contact between researchers.