Photo/Illutration Former presidents of the Science Council of Japan speak at a news conference in Tokyo on Feb. 14. From right, Takashi Onishi, Seigo Hirowatari and Kiyoshi Kurokawa (Photo by Ryuichi Kitano)

Former heads of the nation’s top academic body are raising the alarm that the independence that their organization enjoyed since scientists were used in Japan’s war effort is once again being threatened. 

Five past presidents of the Science Council of Japan called on the government on Feb. 14 to “fundamentally rethink” its bill to overhaul the organization in a manner they say would erode its autonomy.

The joint action by the former leaders was the first since the government refused to appoint some of the council’s nominees as members. 

Hiroyuki Yoshikawa (1997-2003), Kiyoshi Kurokawa (2003-2006), Seigo Hirowatari (2011), Takashi Onishi (2011-2017) and Juichi Yamagiwa (2017-2020) urged the government to respect and protect the council’s self-rule and reconsider its plan to submit the bill to the Diet at a news conference in Tokyo.

On academic independence, their joint statement read, “The government is not allowed to change it arbitrarily” in light of the history of the council, which was established after the war.

The row between the government and the council began in 2020 when Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga refused to appoint six prominent scholars who had criticized the security or other policies of the government led by his predecessor to the council.

Suga also refused to explain why he rejected their appointment.

The council receives government funding. But it has been a decades-long practice that the prime minister automatically approves the membership of candidates selected by the council. The government acknowledged in the Diet in 1983 that its involvement in the appointment process was just a formality.

The government, now led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, sticks to Suga’s stance.

The Cabinet Office, which has legal oversight of the council, is preparing to introduce a setup that would allow a third-party panel to have a voice in the selection process of council members.

But the statement blasted the change as a step to undermine the council’s autonomy.

In academia, selecting members under the self-rule system is the very basis for universally and globally establishing mutual trust and confidence, the document read.

The former presidents called for a fair and impartial discussion over the proposed selection process among the public as well as in the Diet.

At the news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, Hirowatari asserted that the purpose of the revision bill is to justify the government’s rejection of the appointment of the scholars and legalize government intervention.

He expressed concern there is no guarantee that members of the proposed third-party panel would consist of scientists.

“Individuals close to businesses and the government would likely sit on the panel to weed out (council member candidates potentially inconvenient to them),” he said. “If this kind of selection process went through, it would amount to a sweeping reversal from the independent selection process.”

Yamagiwa, who attended the news conference online, said the issue concerning the rejection of the scholars is not over despite Kishida’s claim that it was.

“If the paramount leader of the government is authorized to reject the appointments without explaining the reasons for doing so, it would only facilitate the trend that officials scramble to ascertain what the leader is implying.

“The government should make it clear why it turned down the academics and based on that explanation, the Science Council should work on its own reform proposal,” he added.

The Science Council was established in 1949 based on bitter lessons learned dating to the prewar period when science as well as scholars were used for the war effort.

Its mission includes making policy proposals concerning science, promoting cooperation among Japanese and foreign scientists and enlightening the public on scientific issues as a special institution operating independently from the government.

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