TOKYO -- The Japanese government has given up on submitting a bill to revise the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) law to overhaul the nation's top academic body following a strong backlash from council members and other scientists both at home and abroad.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and economic revitalization minister Shigeyuki Goto, who oversees the SCJ, made the decision on April 20 after consultations on the matter. While the government had sought to submit the bill during the current Diet session, the government and ruling parties concluded that even if they hastily filed the bill amid the deepening rift with the SCJ, they wouldn't be able to secure sufficient time for deliberation and gain public understanding over the legislation.
"I told (Mr. Goto) to once again hold careful discussions with the SCJ and reach a conclusion at an early date," Kishida told reporters after his talks with the economic revitalization minister. Goto explained before the press, "If the Cabinet approved the bill without the SCJ's understanding, it could lead to a decisive breakdown." A senior ruling party official pointed out, "The bill is not directly linked to the lives of the people, and having it passed is not a pressing issue."
The SCJ, meanwhile, hailed the move, with its president Takaaki Kajita commenting, "We'd like to welcome the government's decision to forgo the submission of the bill. We hope that a relationship of trust between the academic community and the government will be restored, and that there will be an opportunity for open discussions."
The bill to revise the Act on the Science Council of Japan centers around establishing a "selection advisory committee" where third parties will give opinions on the selection of council members. The bill stipulates that "opinions of the advisory committee must be respected" in the council membership selections. While it has been decided that the SCJ will continue as a state organ, the bill dictates that the shape of the council be reviewed after three and six years, respectively, including the possibility of separating it from the state.
At an SCJ general meeting on April 17 and 18, the government presented the draft of the bill to seek the council's understanding. The SCJ, however, sharply reacted to the proposal, stating that the proposed reform would allow third parties to intervene in its membership selections and undermine the council's independence. The group unanimously decided to issue an advisory to the government urging it to refrain from introducing the bill to the current Diet session and create an opportunity for consultations. While the advisory is based on the SCJ law and non-binding, it is the most powerful form of expressing the council's views to the government.
The government had aimed to obtain Cabinet approval of the bill as early as April 28, ahead of Japan's "Golden Week" holidays and after nationwide unified local elections, and had accordingly been in talks with the ruling parties. However, Jun Azumi, Diet affairs chief of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, took a firmer stance, saying, "If the government submits the bill, we will proceed with considerable resistance." It was obviously bound to be controversial legislation.
During the latter half of the current Diet session due to close on June 21, a number of key bills await deliberation, including a special measures bill to secure the fiscal resources for increased defense spending. Meanwhile, the Group of Seven summit slated for May in Hiroshima and other diplomatic events are looming, leaving a limited time for debating the bill. These factors also played a part in the government's decision to abandon the bill's submission.
The government's move to review the SCJ's role dates back to October 2020, when then Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga refused to appoint six scholars as new members of the council despite the SCJ's nominations. A review team within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which was discontent with the SCJ's responses to issues including dual-use research that can be applied to both military and civilian use, urged that the science council be separated from the state.
Yet the government settled on a compromised policy to prioritize collaboration with the SCJ while making its operations transparent. In December 2022, the government presented a proposal to keep the SCJ as a state organ while getting third parties involved in its membership selections. However, the bill drew objections and concerns from the science council and other parties, including Nobel laureates both here and abroad and a variety of academic associations.
(Japanese original by Shimpei Torii, Science & Environment News Department, and Shu Hatakeyama, Political News Department)
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