06 February 2009: Daily Yomiuri
Masahiko Sasajima / Yomiuri Research Institute Senior Researcher
The idea was floated by Yukio Sato, former president of the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), about five years ago, when he took the helm of the think tank. Sato, a former Japanese ambassador to the United Nations, began serving as the institute's vice chairman from this month.
The merger proposal was recently compiled into a report, stirring up a hornet's nest.
The institute's budget is funded by two financial sources. In fiscal 2007, the organization was run with 420 million yen in state subsidies from the Foreign Ministry plus 150 million yen in revenues from membership fees from corporate and individual members, profits from commissioned projects, and contributions, among other sources.
The institute's own revenues have tumbled by about 60 percent over the last five years.
The plunge in revenues is attributable to a drastic decline in the number of projects commissioned by the Foreign Ministry among other organizations, and a rapid dwindling in the number of corporate members that was caused by the recession.
The institute has therefore been forced to scale down its research projects and give up scheduled publications of its research achievements.
Sato expressed concern over the current situation, saying, "[If the situation stands as it is], we'll eventually have no choice other than to reduce the overall scope of our research activities."
To address the financial problem, the institute came up with the idea of setting up, in collaboration with other private sector research institutes specializing in diplomatic and security themes, a new organization that would be on a sounder financial footing.
JIIA mooted a merger with the Institute for International Policy Studies, the Japan Forum on International Relations and the Research Institute for Peace and Security, with which it has been cooperating on the Web.
But the three organizations in question reacted coolly toward the proposal.
"Each one of us is different in character and was founded for different reasons, so I believe it would be difficult [to merge the organizations]," said Yoshio Okawara, president of the Institute for International Policy Studies. "Our institute, at least, won't be able to accept the proposal."
JIIA was founded in 1959 by former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who also served as the institute's first president, to study issues related to Japan's national interests and security.
In reality, however, the institute has mainly engaged in group studies with academia and efforts to promote exchanges with research institutes overseas.
On the other hand, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, which was founded in 1958, managed to establish an international reputation through its publication of Military Balance, an annual assessment of the military capabilities and defense economics of 170 countries.
Though the two institutes were established around the same time, JIIA seems to have been left far behind the British think tank.
Compared with their counterparts in the United States and Europe, Japanese research institutes are generally plagued with financial problems, making it difficult for them to cultivate human resources, make policy proposals and supply manpower to government bodies.
The United States, on the other hand, has many private policy research institutes.
Funded with contributions from wealthy benefactors and private sector firms, such institutes compete with each other to come up with ideas and expand their influence through their policy research activities and proposals as nonprofit organizations independent of the government.
For instance, the utilization of "smart power" proposed by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is based on a proposal by the Center for Strategic and International Studies of the United States.
Because senior officials of key U.S. government bodies make use of the political appointee system, researchers at major U.S. think tanks are considered important human resources to fill key government posts.
In the Obama administration, for instance, Susan Rice, a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who was formerly an assistant secretary of state for African affairs, was appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Though financial difficulties prompted the JIIA to make the merger proposal this time, the nation's think tanks should seriously consider the basic question of how to foster human resources capable enough to make policy proposals to the government, and how to raise their profile overseas.
"Policy research institutes in the country have weak intellectual and financial foundations. I believe they must tackle this problem," Prof. Hiroshi Nakanishi of Kyoto University said.
In Japan, where bureaucrats in the political nerve center of Kasumigaseki take full control of information and administrative authority, policy research institutes find it difficult to have their opinions heard by the government.
In a democratic society, however, it is vital for people in the private sector to transmit information to the public for the purpose of widening the framework of policy debates, aside from academic research activities conducted at universities.
If the political appointee system is widely introduced during the course of reforming the civil servant system in the country, it will become possible for policy think tanks to supply capable human resources to government bodies.
It is about time to reconsider how to boost the roles of such thinks tanks from this broader perspective.
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