Japan鈥檚 Ministry of Finance in Tokyo last week granted tax concessions
to home-based university researchers who would otherwise have been penalised
for winning grants under the Human Frontier Science Programme, an international
fund for basic biological research supported entirely by Japan. Without
the concession, the researchers would have had to pay at least 40 per cent
of their grants in tax.
The problem arose because the head office of the programme is in Strasbourg,
France. Japan鈥檚 education ministry, which controls almost all R&D at
the country鈥檚 universities, does not administer grants received from outside
sources. Therefore, the only way that Japanese researchers could receive
the funds was to accept them personally, as income, which made the grants
uniquely liable to taxation.
The finance ministry鈥檚 decision represents a victory by the Ministry
of International Trade and Industry, which is managing the human frontier
programme, over the conservative guardians of Japan鈥檚 universities.
Advertisement