March 13 & 14, 2025
Sixteen groups of academics, lawyers, and citizens on March 13 submitted 22,792 signatures to the Cabinet Office in opposition to a bill that would impair the independence of the Science Council of Japan and transform it into an institution that would bend to the will of the government.
The government on March 7 approved a cabinet decision on a bill to separate the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) from the current “special organizations” of the state designation and turn it into a special governmental corporation. The bill stipulates that auditors and evaluators appointed by the prime minister will check up on the SCJ activities. It, in fact, aims to place the representative organization of Japanese scholars and scientists under government control.
In submitting the signatures, the 16 groups held a rally in the Diet building, calling for the withdrawal of the bill that in effect would dismantle the SCJ.
Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira at the rally expressed his determination to scrap the bill, stating, “If we allow this to happen, we will no longer be a democracy.”
JCP Dietmembers Inoue Satoshi (Upper House) and Shiokawa Tetsuya (Lower House), along with lawmakers from the Social Democratic Party and the “Reiwa” party spoke in solidarity. Some Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan legislators and their secretaries also took part in the rally.
The signature-collection campaign began online in February. Former SCJ President Hirowatari Seigo, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, said, “The signature drive by a civic movement for the benefit of the SCJ is unprecedented. This is historically significant.”
University of Tokyo Professor Honda Yuki referred to the present situation at national universities after they became independent administrative corporations. She noted that the national budget allocated to them will be slashed if they do not comply with government policies. She said, “The government is intending to do the same thing to the SCJ.”
Komagome Takeshi, Kyoto University professor, expressed his concern about “enclosures of knowledge” by the government from an economic and military perspective.
The U.S. scientific journal “Science” reported on March 10 that “Japan’s dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is out to crimp the independence of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) — the country’s national science academy.” The article pointed out that one aspect of the conflict between the LDP and the SCJ is “the SCJ’s opposition to academics conducting research into military or dual-use technologies, something the LDP and some business sectors favor.”
Past related articles:
> PM Suga’s refusal of SCJ nominees recalls imperial government suppression of academic freedom [October 23, 2020]
> SCJ adopts statement reaffirming 50-year-old military research ban [March 25, 2017]
The government on March 7 approved a cabinet decision on a bill to separate the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) from the current “special organizations” of the state designation and turn it into a special governmental corporation. The bill stipulates that auditors and evaluators appointed by the prime minister will check up on the SCJ activities. It, in fact, aims to place the representative organization of Japanese scholars and scientists under government control.
In submitting the signatures, the 16 groups held a rally in the Diet building, calling for the withdrawal of the bill that in effect would dismantle the SCJ.
Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira at the rally expressed his determination to scrap the bill, stating, “If we allow this to happen, we will no longer be a democracy.”
JCP Dietmembers Inoue Satoshi (Upper House) and Shiokawa Tetsuya (Lower House), along with lawmakers from the Social Democratic Party and the “Reiwa” party spoke in solidarity. Some Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan legislators and their secretaries also took part in the rally.
The signature-collection campaign began online in February. Former SCJ President Hirowatari Seigo, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, said, “The signature drive by a civic movement for the benefit of the SCJ is unprecedented. This is historically significant.”
University of Tokyo Professor Honda Yuki referred to the present situation at national universities after they became independent administrative corporations. She noted that the national budget allocated to them will be slashed if they do not comply with government policies. She said, “The government is intending to do the same thing to the SCJ.”
Komagome Takeshi, Kyoto University professor, expressed his concern about “enclosures of knowledge” by the government from an economic and military perspective.
The U.S. scientific journal “Science” reported on March 10 that “Japan’s dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is out to crimp the independence of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) — the country’s national science academy.” The article pointed out that one aspect of the conflict between the LDP and the SCJ is “the SCJ’s opposition to academics conducting research into military or dual-use technologies, something the LDP and some business sectors favor.”
Past related articles:
> PM Suga’s refusal of SCJ nominees recalls imperial government suppression of academic freedom [October 23, 2020]
> SCJ adopts statement reaffirming 50-year-old military research ban [March 25, 2017]
