Prestigious Japanese universities are stepping up plans and creating new budgets in order to accept international researchers and students facing uncertainty in the United States after the administration of President Donald Trump threatened to drastically cut research funding and suspend visa applications from abroad.
At least 87 Japanese universities have earmarked new budgets to host foreign researchers. Among them are top national institutions such as the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, and Tohoku University, which lead Japan’s world-class scientific and technology research.
At a meeting of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation chaired by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on 4 June, Ishiba instructed relevant ministries to recruit researchers seeking to leave the US.
“We will enhance our efforts to attract excellent researchers from overseas, including the United States, amid the US government’s policies that have raised concerns about research activities,” he said at the meeting held at the prime minister’s office.
A statement released on 30 May by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Toshiko Abe, said Japan will adopt an “All-Japan” approach to support opportunities for highly talented and motivated young people.
Abe told Japan’s parliament, the Diet, that the government will assist Japanese students and researchers enrolled at Harvard University and other universities in the US. A hotline for Japanese students has been created by the ministry.
Abe said her ministry had received positive responses to support offers from students and researchers from about 90 universities in the United States.
Tohoku University offer
Last month, Tohoku University held recruitment events for young researchers in the United States, including those at Stanford University and hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School, according to Tohoku University.
Consultations with prospective applicants focused on research themes and employment status, as well as salaries, which are viewed as significantly lower in Japan than those in the US.
Tohoku University has been selected as one of Japan’s International Research Excellence Universities under a government initiative to raise domestic research standards. This provides Tohoku with additional funds for research. The university said it will invest JPY30 billion (US$209 million) over the next five years to hire 500 researchers who want to leave the US. The plan does not stipulate a salary cap.
Undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in US universities who face problems continuing their studies due to Trump’s policies will be accepted at Tohoku as non-degree students who are not required to pay tuition or enrolment fees.
“We will gather outstanding researchers from around the world, including the United States,” Tohoku University President Teiji Tominaga told Japanese media on 5 June.
The university reported it has already received commitments from 61 researchers, including 16 based in the US.
Under the International Research Excellence Universities programme, Tohoku University is strengthening partnerships with universities in the US. For example, a joint quantum technology lab will be established at the University of Chicago as part of a new Chicago-Tohoku Quantum Alliance to build an international quantum workforce and a joint semiconductor research centre at the University of Washington.
In September 2024, Tohoku and the University of Washington set up a joint research fund for collaborative research, which funded four joint projects from this April.
Other universities to accept students
Ritsumeikan University, another leading institution, is planning to accept up to 50 students, and the affiliated Asia Pacific University is also preparing to accept up to 50 students. In addition, Ritsumeikan University alone is considering accepting up to 16 researchers with no specific restrictions on nationality.
“By welcoming such highly motivated and globally minded students to our campus, we expect that they will provide meaningful inspiration to our students,” Takumi Suenaga, manager of the university’s international admissions office, told University World News.
With almost half of its 6,500-strong student body comprising foreign students, the university has traditionally recognised the importance of diversity on its campus.
Still, Japan faces competition for US-based researchers and students from universities in Europe and other parts of Asia, with a global flurry of offers.
Professor Hiroshi Ota, an international education expert at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, said: “Japanese universities are proposing an emergency solution as [they] did when Japan accepted a limited number of students from Ukraine when they had to escape the war with Russia”.
However, he noted that programmes offered by universities targeting international students are mostly short-term and non-degree.
“The focus of Japanese universities’ offers now seems to be to assist Japanese nationals studying in the US,” Ota told University World News.
The University of Osaka announced on 28 May it is considering specific support measures, including waiving tuition fees for Harvard students and researchers.
The university’s Graduate School of Medicine said it has secured financial resources of JPY600 million (US$4.12 million) to JPY1 billion to establish a system to accept up to about 100 researchers, regardless of nationality.
“In the United States, where outstanding researchers gather from all over the world, something terrible is happening,” Masaru Ishii, who heads the Graduate School of Medicine, said in a statement. “The inability to continue excellent research is a loss for humanity as a whole,” he said.
The statement continued: “Support is important for future academic and international development. We will provide an environment where they can engage in cutting-edge research with peace of mind.”
A popular destination
Kyoto University announced on 27 May it would accept international students from Harvard if they are forced by the US administration to give up their studies there. Offers of support for undergraduate and graduate students state that enrolment will be based on a programme agreed with the university in the US where the students are currently enrolled.
Students will be hosted as non-regular students, according to the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) website, which also notes the possibility of students being accepted as regular students in the Graduate School of Engineering.
The US is the most popular destination for Japanese students studying abroad, with almost 14,000 Japanese students in the US in 2023 to 2024 – the fourth-largest group of international students.
While precise numbers of Japanese researchers in the US are unavailable, given the different ways in which researchers are defined, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science supports some 220 Japanese PhDs at the US National Institutes of Health, which is earmarked for swingeing cuts by the Trump administration.