"JSPS External Review Report" was issued.(PDF File 1.22MB)

industrial structure and elsewhere make it difficult to predict overalldemand, including those graduates who will take up posts in companies, butthe figure is envisaged at around 12,000-13,000, which does not absorb all18,0000 students who have completed their doctorates. Many of theremaining graduates are envisaged as already employed and taking theirdoctoral courses as mid-career professionals, while others will continue theirresearch with assistance from systems such as the JSPS ResearchFellowships for Young Scientists.Career paths taken by postdoctorals and researchersBecause lifelong employment has been the general practice in Japan, manystudents have leaned strongly toward taking up fulltime positions asuniversity assistants, etc., as soon as possible, but in fact few post-doctoralstudents wishing to continue their research are able to find jobs in four -yearor two-year universities immediately after acquiring their degree. Moreover,as in many other advanced countries, researchers really need to engage in avariety of research projects to boost their research abilities, earning aresearch reputation on the basis of which to win a suitable post.Efforts are therefore being made to enhance measures such as fellowshipsand national university part-time research positions so that the bulk ofresearchers can spend their first post-doctoral years researching in thecapacity of post-doctoral researchers before taking up fulltime posts.Further, promoting research activities requires greater mobility on the partof researchers at home and abroad, and the right kind of environment needsto be developed in terms of systems, etc., so that young researchers inparticular can advance their research as postdoctorals in the researchinstitutes most suited to the development of their research, rather thansimply staying on at their own universities, before they take on fulltimepositions.The Program to Support 10,000 Postdoctorals was consequently created aspart of the first phase of the 1996 Basic Plan for Science and Technology tocreate an environment in which young researchers could concentrate ontheir own independent research under supervision.157