2025 Volume 40 Issue 1 Pages 73-86
While the recent decline in Japan's research capabilities and its underlying factors have been widely discussed, one important issue to consider is how large-scale funding programs, launched one after another since the beginning of this century, have affected the research capabilities of Japanese universities. This paper examines how large-scale programs in science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy have been collectively transformed in their objectives and characteristics, and how they have impacted Japan's research capabilities over the past 25 years. Those programs are categorized into four groups, and their long-term trends as well as evaluations that have been given to them are analyzed. Based on this analysis, it is pointed out that, achieving evidence-based planning and implementation of future large-scale programs in STI policy might require being mindful of the plurality of policy objectives and evaluation criteria when designing such programs.
