Photo/Illutration The University of Tsukuba in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture (Naoki Shoji)

TSUKUBA, Ibaraki Prefecture--The University of Tsukuba is facing internal and external pressure to reject research funds worth up to 2 billion yen ($18.53 million) for a project that critics describe as “military research.”

The university in 2018 adopted a basic policy to avoid military research, but it said the project in question does not violate that policy because it is not intended for weapons development.

The Defense Ministry approved the project for funding in late December under its Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA)’s open-to-the-public security technology research promotion system.

The project involves research on an anti-shock material using carbon nanotube and is headed by professor Junichi Fujita of the university’s Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences.

Along with two private companies, the university is entitled to up to 2 billion yen for the project over five years.

Some universities’ projects have been selected for small amounts of funding since the ATLA program started in 2015.

But the University of Tsukuba is the first academic institution to win funding for a big project. It was approved for “large-scale research projects” in the second round of solicitation in fiscal 2019.

The Defense Ministry’s approval prompted the Japanese Coalition Against Military Research in Academia to start its protest in February.

The civic group, which opposes military research conducted by civilian scientists, visited the university on March 11 to call for a suspension of the project. It handed over a petition signed by 4,515 people online.

Takayuki Kodera, secretary-general of the coalition, said the ministry’s aim is to use advanced technology from the civilian sector to develop weapons. He said the university’s research could be used for military purposes, including developing materials for bulletproof vests and missile fuselages.

Kodera also said it is unreasonable to argue that the project is not inhumane because it is only basic research unintended for diversion to military use.

“The behavior displayed by the University of Tsukuba, whose president serves as chair of the Japan Association of National Universities, could affect other universities, which are now trying hard not to depend on the defense budget while they suffer from shortages of research funding and operating costs,” Kodera said.

Members of the Japan Scientists’ Association chapter at the University of Tsukuba, as well as a volunteer association protesting the new national security legislation within the university, are also calling for a suspension of the research.

According to university officials, a review committee whose members included President Kyosuke Nagata and the vice president gave the green light for the application for Defense Ministry funds after determining that the research project did not violate the basic policy adopted in 2018.

The committee said it was a basic research project on a new material not intended for diversion to military weapons. It also noted that the ATLA’s solicitation guidelines state that agency officials will not intervene in the content of the research or restrict the publication of the results.

The Science Council of Japan, comprising scholars and scientists in all fields of sciences, issued a statement in March 2017 to voice opposition to the ATLA’s research promotion system.

The council said that research projects are encouraged “with a clear objective of awarding prospective projects that are likely to produce results useful to the future development of defense equipment.” It added that the ATLA program “has many problems due to governmental interventions into research.”

The council’s concerns echoed its statements issued in 1950 and 1967 on maintaining a position against military research out of remorse for World War II, during which scientists were put to work.