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The Survey of Research Achievements also investigated the general perceptions of Japanese researchers in the natural sciences regarding the research level of Japan.
At first a total of 800 researchers in various fields of natural sciences were queried as to their general impressions about the research level of Japanese universities and related research institutes. According to the result, as given in Chart 23, "Surpassing the world level" accounts for l.8%," Ranking with the top level" for 40.2%, and "Somewhat competitive" for 42.1%. Thus, it can be seen that many Japanese researchers are of the opinion that the research achievements of Japanese universities and related research institutes have reached the world level in terms of research achievements.
The negative replies about Japan's research level accounted for some 9% ("Slightly behind the world level" accounting for 7.4% and "Considerably behind the world level" for 1.4%), reasons being the shortage of research investments (in research funds, research facilities and equipment), the lack of systems for scientific
Chart 23 Level of Japan's Scientific Research: Evaluation by Japanese Scientists research, the shortage of researchers, etc.
The Survey also included questions to 2,000 recipients of the Ministry's grants-in-aid for scientific research in the natural sciences about the level of scientific research in Japan, as compared with foreign countries. They were asked to evaluate the present research level and predict the level ten years into the future, with 10 points being the highest and 6 points being the average.
According to Chart 24, which concerns the research level at the time of the survey, researchers were of the opinion that in the field of basic research, while the United States was clearly at the top, Japan stood on the same level with, or a little bit higher than, European countries. In applied research, Japan held the second place surpassing all European countries although considerably behind the United States.
As for the comparison of future research levels it was predicted, as shown in Chart 24, that basic research in Japan would considerably advance beyond the level of European countries, but that the large gap with the United States would remain. In applied research, too, Japan would outdistance European countries and draw loser to the United States.
It should be noted that in this survey scientific specialties were classified into three categories, namely, physical sciences, chemical sciences, and biological sciences.
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