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Japan's trade minister, Kaoru Yosano, last week called for university scientists to be given more freedom to work in collaboration with industry. His comments were made in response to recent controversy over Sony's appointment of an economics professor from Hitotsubashi University to its board of directors.

Kaoru Yosano: wants to relax current law. Credit: AP/ CHIAKI TSUKUMO

Such external work is forbidden by civil service law, which prohibits employees of national universities from taking part in profit-making activities. But Yosano suggested that university researchers be given an exemption on the basis of “the potential benefit of collaboration between industry and the academic community”.

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (Monbusho) have been working towards relaxing the law (see Nature 390, 105; 1997), but little progress has yet been made.

The delay is partly due to concern that relaxing the law may trigger corrupt relationships between industry and universities. MITI officials attribute current sensitivity to a recent bribery scandal involving a former professor from Nagoya University and a major drug company (see Nature 396, 205; 1998).

Hiroyoshi Hidaka, a former professor at Nagoya University Medical School, and executives from Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. were found guilty last week over payments relating to Otsuka's drug research and development activities.

It is said that Hidaka claimed to have received payments from Otsuka for providing ‘technical consultation’. But the Nagoya District Prosecutor's Office ruled that the payments were bribes, on the basis that Hidaka accepted them in return for allowing the company to use university facilities, including researchers, for commercial research — an activity that is also prohibited by the law.

While the public has been quick to express its disapproval, many researchers consider the incident to be no more than a conventional industry-university collaboration that was considered corrupt because of a lack of clear guidelines.

“It creates a terrible dilemma, as the government is actively urging university researchers to become involved in business activities, yet such involvement is restricted by the law,” says Tamon Inoue, professor of engineering at Tsukuba University and head of its Venture Business Laboratory.

Akito Arima, minister of education and director-general of the Science and Technology Agency, is a supporter of such collaboration provided that activities are restricted to basic research.

But Arima said many questions still need to be addressed, such as those concerning how much researchers should be paid if they work for a private company, and also what their status would be if the company were to go bankrupt.