Academy Independent from Government

The experts’ conference on the issue of Science Council of Japan summarized an intermediate report which recommended the government to reform the council into a special corporation. This is the consequence of eccentric action of the government frustrated with academic criticisms against the administration. It is regrettable for the government to finish its efforts to execute policies with academic endorsements.

Established in 1948, SCJ has been playing a role to advise the government as a national academy. Article 2 of Science Council of Japan Act defines its purpose as reflecting improvement of science on execution of policies, activity of industries and people’s life. The law puts SCJ under oversight of Prime Minister and demands the government to cover all the cost for SCJ.

 

The reform of SCJ has been discussed after Yoshihide Suga administration rejected the recommendation of six scholars, all of whom had been approved by the general assembly of SCJ, for new members in 2020. It was reported that then Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, Kazuhiro Sugita, dismissed those six scholars. They included some scholars critical on the policies of the government.

 

Those six scholars are still not the members of SCJ. In spite of consecutive requests from SCJ, the government keeps on rejecting them. The government recognizes the selection of SCJ member as a matter of governmental decision, because SCJ is financially dependent on the government. Putting the eligibility of the six scholars aside, the government started discussion on the reform of unpreferable SCJ.

 

The government tried to amend SCJ Act, with an idea of external intervention in the selection of SCJ members. SCJ firmly against that idea and the amendment was not submitted to the Diet session earlier this year. Then the government established an expert conference this August and it published an intermediate report in December.

 

The report does not recommend firm engagement of the government to SCJ. Demanding that the government should not be involved in the selection of the members, the report raises arguments in case SCJ is going to be reformed into a special corporation. “If SCJ is corporatized, a special method for selecting new members should be introduced in the first selection,” says the report.

 

This is the issue how the government recognizes the necessity of academic viewpoints in the policies. If the government only requires endorsement from scholars, the politics will be getting close to autocracy. SCJ Act realizes that science makes the basis of a cultural state and SCJ contributes to a peaceful reconstruction of Japan and welfare of human society. To a proposition of how to take an appropriate distance from academism, the Japanese government has drawn an answer to cut off SCJ.

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