Academics in Japan are bitterly divided over defence ministry grants to universities for defence-related research, with such funding receiving a dramatic boost this year amid declining general research budgets for universities over the past decade.
In a huge acceleration in funding from the defence ministry, subsidies for defence-related research in universities and institutions will increase from just JPY600 million (US$5.2 million) in 2016 to JPY11 billion (US$94.7 million) in the 2017 fiscal year which begins in April, and will for the first time include funding for large, long-term research projects over five years.
Some JPY300 million was allocated in 2015 – the first direct research funding from the defence ministry to universities since World War II.
