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

(2) University research activitiesThe Importance of Universities for ResearchUniversities are institutions that are defined in the School Education Lawas to organizations that take on the responsibility of Japan’s “centers ofadvanced learning,” both through higher education and research. In theirpractical effect also, both qualitatively and quantitatively, they play a keyrole with the research activities that take place in Japan as a whole.The main structural element of universities is in their organization ofeducation and research which relate to the 4-year undergraduate education,which starts when students enter universities in the 13 th year after the startcompulsory education and leads to a Bachelor’s degree; and continues withgraduate education (either a Master ’s degree, normally attained 2 yearsafter graduation, or a Doctorate, normally attained 5 years after graduation).(see Note 1 below.) Because of this, it is a distinctive feature of universitiesthat general, continuous and diversified development can take place there todo with various facets of research including the fostering of high-levelprofessional experts and up and coming researchers in all fields from thestart of general and specialized education after middle-school, and basic andapplied research in a wide range of fields, in ways not seen in any otherkind of research institution.In addition, within each universities there exist various organizationsincluding research institutes and centers for the promotion of researchcooperation with industry. In particular, in tandem with changes occurringin general society, recent years have seen the marked emergence ofuniversities as composite and complex management bodies.Further, as research organizations unique to Japan, with a similar sort ofcharacter as universities, there are national inter-university researchinstitutes, in which researchers from universities all over the countryparticipate, and make joint use of large -scale research facilities andequipment and systematically organized collections of materials. As well aspromoting academic research through, for example, joint implementation ofinternational cooperative projects, they also cooperate in education at74