Japan's science and education ministry has announced a ¥500-million (US$5-million) plan to pay companies to hire postdoctoral students.

The scheme aims to deal with a glut of unemployed postdocs in the nation. The number of academic posts available to them has shrunk since the 1990s, as a result of government streamlining in the university system (see Nature 449, 1084–1085; 2007).

By February 2009, 17,827 unemployed postdocs had registered with the Japan Information Career Network (JREC-IN), a website hosted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) that lists science-related jobs.

Industry traditionally recruits undergraduates, but the JST plans to provide grants to around 100 companies that hire postdocs, mainly through the JREC-IN. The grants would be financed through a supplementary budget being discussed in the current parliamentary session, which is expected to end in June.