Japan Press Weekly

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2016 May 25 - 31 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Researchers hold symposium opposing involvement in gov’t military research

The Association of Scholars Opposed to the Security-related Laws held a symposium on May 29 on the campus of Kyoto University in opposition to the Abe government’s move to involve more researchers in military research.

In fiscal 2015, the Abe administration introduced a program to promote joint military research between the Defense Ministry and research institutions, including universities, and allocated 300 million yen to the program. The budget was doubled in fiscal 2016.

At the symposium, Nagoya University Professor Emeritus Ikeuchi Satoru delivered the keynote speech. He said, “The government calls it a ‘collaborative research project’, but universities and the Defense Ministry are not equals in military research. The government’s true aim is to entice researchers by offering money and change universities into subordinate organizations serving the government.”

Ikeuchi went on to criticize the “dual-use” argument which the Abe administration is putting forward in order to get academics involved in military research. “If a research project is sponsored by the defense authorities, it is not a ‘dual-use’ project but one for military purposes,” said Ikeuchi. Noting that the government has continuously reduced public subsidies for operating national universities, he stressed, “This is an ‘economic draft system’ intended to draft underpaid researchers.”

Science Council of Japan (SCJ) Vice President Inose Kumie, a professor at Konan University, pointed to the fact that some psychologists in the United States had been engaged in torturing prisoners and suspected terrorists into confessions. She emphasized that social science and humanities researchers as well as physical science scholars may be dragged into military research.

Former SCJ President Hirowatari Seigo, professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo, said, “We scientists have a duty to foster science for peaceful purposes and spread scientific knowledge throughout society for the benefit of all.”

At the meeting, a message from Hiroshima University Vice President Yoshida Fusahito was read out. The university’s executive board decided that they will not apply for government-backed military research projects. The message states that Hiroshima University, as an educational institution founded in the aftermath of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, will never allow the conduct of research for military purposes.

Past related article:
> Science Council divided over military research [May 22, 2016]