Slashdot Mirror
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."
Maybe Japan has a stagnant economy because like the U.S. or Germany, it already is one of the most developed countries in the world. Perhaps the focus should be on building economies that don't require perpetual growth in order to sustain a high quality of life for all citizens. Perpetual growth is impossible. Even with new technologies and innovation, there are only so many resources on this planet.
Japan's inflation rate is -0.2% and its unemployment is 4.5%. They need to create more money to invest in technology and the advance of knowledge, because that is what improves survival fitness by better enabling prediction and adaptation to sudden catastrophic change.