“Will this research help businesses?” I don’t think we’ll know until 100 years later.”Masatoshi Kosh..

“Will this research help businesses?” I don’t think we’ll know until 100 years later.”

Masatoshi Koshiba, a professor at Tokyo University who led the study, answered a question from an executive of a large company in 1958 when Japan was preparing to build a neutrino observation device in Kamioka, Gifu Prefecture. It was urgent to rebuild the economy 10 years after the defeat of World War II, but even after hearing dubious answers, the Japanese government and companies spent a lot of money building equipment. About 30 years later, in 1987, Professor Koshiba succeeded in observing neutrinos and received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

His student, Professor Takaki Kajita of the University of Tokyo, designed “Super Kamiokande,” which has better performance than Kamiokande in the 1990s. Even at the beginning of the “misplaced decade,” the Japanese government and companies once again poured 100 billion won into the money at the time. Super Kamiokande revealed that neutrinos had mass in 1998, and Japan won another Nobel Prize in Physics in 2015.

The potential of Japan’s Nobel Prize comes from “don’t ask funding,” which looks forward to 100 years. RIKEN, a basic science research institute established in 1917 and called the “硏 of the Japanese Nobel Prize,” symbolizes this spirit of investment without question. Riken is known for establishing a solid foundation for basic science research with decades of long-term investment. Even now, many studies are being conducted that are expected to produce results after 30 years.

It is also important that it is an environment where the Japanese scientific community can conduct the research they want, as in the case of Professor Koshiba. In particular, basic science spending is focused on ‘Bottom-Up’ research. This means that it strategically supports the academically excellent, original, and pioneering research presented by researchers, not the subject designated by the government. The related budget has remained stable over the past decade, and funds to support multi-year research funds are also on the rise.

In the case of Riken, the institute’s own project is subject to a “peer evaluation” only once every seven years, leaving all authority to the research director. Because the budget is rarely cut due to interim checks, creative research is possible, and research results can be consistently produced in one field for more than 20 to 30 years.

The late Professor Hiroshi Matsumoto, who served as the chairman of Riken’s board, emphasized the importance of basic science by writing in a 2016 而, “Using 而 (which appears ineffective proper now, however is definitely helpful).”

Some say that what Korea should envy the most is a culture of deep-rooted respect for science. In other words, it is necessary to pay attention to Japan’s efforts to establish science and culture for a long time, not to inconvenience the gap between the Nobel Prize in Science between Korea and Japan, which is “27-0”.

The Japanese people’s unique love of science boasts a history of more than 100 years. A famous anecdote is that Albert Einstein, the winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, heard the news of the Nobel Prize on a ship bound for Japan. Immediately after receiving the Nobel Prize, the world’s top physicist gave science lectures across Japan for 43 days, and his lectures sparked Japanese interest in science. It is also worth considering that Japan has been working on research methods and support projects that Korea now tries little by little for decades from the 1980s to the 1990s.

Korea still looks at science and technology from a short-term perspective as ‘economy-oriented’. Even the constitution that defines science and technology at the national level stipulates that ‘efforts should be made to develop the national economy’ (Article 127, Paragraph 1). An official from the scientific community, who asked not to be named, said, “Infectious ailments and local weather change can’t be solved by financial and industrial logic alone. In order for Korean science to face upright, the Constitution, the idea of Korea’s science and know-how coverage, have to be revised.”

The basic science research proposal that scientists write to receive research funds from the government or research institutes still requires that the “financial worth via research” be specified. For example, if you look at the application form for the second basic research project of the Ministry of Science and ICT in 2025 announced in March this year, applicants must submit their research projects and fill out the “anticipated results of research outcomes.” The relevant item is accompanied by an explanation to write not only the scientific and technical effects of research results, but also the effects in economic and industrial aspects.

“Basic science ought to be thought of individually from industrial know-how, however there’s a lack of understanding of this separation,” said Kim Seok-hyung, a chemistry professor at Michigan State University. “There have been fixed calls within the Korean scientific group to separate science, engineering, and know-how, however the actuality is that even the federal government feels that it lacks consciousness of encouraging fundamental science.”

Lee Seung-gyu, a chemistry professor at Hong Kong University who received a doctorate from the laboratory of Professor Omar Yagi at UC Berkeley, this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry, said, “Japan and the United States have a long time of scientific infrastructure. World-class scientists domesticate younger scientists who delight themselves on the land as ‘the most effective,’ he stated. “As they study as much as they want, a virtuous cycle structure is formed.” Reporter Lee Sae-bom and Ko Jae-won