News Young Japanese scholars heading to China

"In Japan's academic culture, it usually takes 10 years or so until post-doctorate researchers can set up their own labs after completing the so-called 'apprenticeship' period under professors," he said in a recent online interview. "I contemplated about what I should do in my 30s, when I was physically and mentally capable of carrying out demanding work. My conclusion was to go overseas." [...] A number of Japanese scholars are opting to do research in China mainly because of something that most young workers want: job stability. Japan continues to use a funding system that critics say is pushing away young researchers. To cover costs for personnel and research activities, Japanese national universities and research institutes had long relied on government grants and "competitive research funds," which are supplied only for planned projects submitted by scientists and approved in a government review. Since 2004, the government has been scaling back university grants and increasing competitive funds.

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This trend contrasts with Japan, where scholars are struggling to find jobs because of budget cuts by universities. China has sharply increased spending on research programs over the past 20 years, edging closer to the U.S. in both the quality and quantity of research papers.

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Hiromu Kameoka, a former assistant professor at Tohoku University, became a group leader at the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in September 2022. He set up his own team at the Shanghai-based center operated jointly with the John Innes Centre, a British organization well known for botanical studies. "I wanted to be an independent researcher as early as possible," he said. After stints at a number of Japanese universities, Kameoka settled into a post as a fixed-term assistant professor at Tohoku in 2020 in the hope of heading his own laboratory. But he was never given that chance, leading him to apply to the CAS, which eventually accepted him. Kameoka studies symbiotic relations between soil microbes and plants. A type of mold called arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi gathers phosphorus and nitrogen in the soil and transfers the nutrients to plants, functioning as a "microbial fertilizer" while carrying a low environmental load. "I am more fortunate than many others, even in China," he said. Some $640,000 was provided to set up the lab and cover five years of research. He also has access to advanced equipment.

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