China’s progress in the field of science is remarkable. One of these is the achievement of a triple crown in three indicators related to the quantity and quality of scientific and technological papers. Until now, only the United States has achieved a triple crown in these three indicators. The more a research paper is cited by other researchers, the higher its quality is evaluated. China has surpassed the United States in the number of notable papers that are in the top 10% of citations. Furthermore, a paper that is in the top 1% of citations is called a top paper. A top paper can be said to be the most excellent research that leads a field. Looking at the world share of top papers 10 years ago, the United States had an overwhelming 41.2%, followed by the second place UK with 7.6%, and third place China with 6.4%. The share of top papers announced by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology this time was 27.2% for China and 24.9% for the United States, far ahead of the third place UK with 5.5%. By the way, Japan’s top papers account for only 1.6% of the world’s share.
The number of scientific papers is a basic indicator of the state of a country’s research activities. Japan is also losing momentum in this field. Although it maintains 5th place in total number of papers, it has fallen to 12th place in terms of notable papers, overtaken by Spain and South Korea. The top paper has been overtaken by India. Japan’s world-leading scientific and technological capabilities are also beginning to show dark clouds due to the shrinking of human resources and investment. In terms of the number of researchers, China has 2.28 million (2020) and the second-place United States has 1.59 million (2019). Japan is third in terms of the number of researchers. Japan has 690,000 researchers (2021), and their potential cannot be underestimated. Therefore, we have come up with a mechanism to utilize this potential.
In some cases, highly popular papers can become top papers. In a sense, nurturing researchers who can disseminate these notable papers will lead to raising the level of science and technology in Japan. While there are researchers who can produce notable papers, there are also researchers who cannot produce papers of that level. There is a survey on researchers who have written high-profile and low-profile papers. In the survey, 85% of researchers in the fields of science, engineering, and agriculture answered that satisfying their own intellectual curiosity results in a paper that attracts attention. In the fields of science, engineering, and agriculture, the concept of creating an environment where curiosity is valued for research is born. In order to improve Japan’s scientific research capabilities, it seems necessary to have a system that supports research based on researchers’ intellectual curiosity.
