ABSTRACT
Nakai’s (2008: 74-76) article in Chūō Kōron also examined what he described as a ‘sudden epidemic of research fraud and misconduct’ taking place in Japanese universities. Examples cited included:
(a) January 2003: University of Tokyo Medical School Professor Tsutsumi Osamu, the Crown Princess’ gynaecologist, suspended for embezzling state subsidies;
(b) August 2003: University of Tokyo vice president Professor Nitagai Kumon (who ironically had announced the suspension of Professor Tsutsumi a few months earlier) forced to resign for misappropriating state subsidies through falsified business trips;
(c) June 2006: Waseda Professor Matsumoto Kazuko, a high-profile researcher and a member of a number of leading scientific research policy-related committees, forced to resign over the misuse of around ¥212 million of public money;
(d) October 2006: University of Tokyo Professor Taira Kazunari and research associate Dr Kawasaki Hiroaki dismissed after Kawasaki’s papers in journals such as Nature were found to be based on fabricated data;
(e) December 2006: Osaka University Professor Sugino Akio dismissed for the use of fraudulent data.
