Japan Plans To Merge Major Science Bodies

ananyo writes "In its battle against a sluggish economy, Japan's government is gearing up to make cost savings through a root-and-branch reform of the country's science system, merging some of its most prominent research organizations. Plans approved by the government's cabinet would consolidate the RIKEN network of basic-research laboratories with the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) — the national funding body. But with few details about the timing, potential cost savings or full implications of the change, many researchers are concerned that it could be a recipe for harsh funding cuts and even greater bureaucracy."

Comments

Merging bodies?

[Dan East]

Merging science bodies. Sounds kinky.

Yes.

[SeaFox]

Japan should merge the Nuclear Science department with the Zoology group.

What could possibly go wrong?

Re:They should definitely abolish their 'economics

[Microlith]

Ladies and gents, roman_mir has solved Japan's economic problems in a single Slashdot post!

Re:They should definitely abolish their 'economics

[bky1701]

This sound a lot like some of the suggestions posted here for what the US needs to do, so I think he might have not just saved Japan, but saved the whole world! If economists working for world governments knew as much as the libertarians on slashdot, think of what the world would be like!