Scientific performance of Japan's science and technology basic plans

Summary The importance of science and technology (S&T) is well recognized in Japan. Thus, the Science and Technology Basic Law was enacted in 1995, and two S&T Basic Plans based on this law were made and executed from 1996 to 2005 with spending totaling 39 trillion yen (about 31 billion US dollars). A comprehensive review of the First and Second Plans was conducted to evaluate their performance and to prepare for the Third S&T Basic Plan. This paper will present part of the findings from this comprehensive review. The findings will be presented in two parts. The first part will focus on S&T inputs (budget) and system reform (budget channels and allocation) while the second part will focus on S&T outputs (research papers and their citations). It will be established that Japan increased its S&T budget and that this input increase first led to an increase in the number of research papers and to an increase of their citations later. The productivity of universities to create research papers per research and development (R&D) expenditure was also enhanced.