National Museum of Nature and Science Unusual CRAFAN due to Lack of Funds Serious situation without sufficient support from the government, even though the amount exceeded 100 million yen in 9 hours.
The new coronavirus and the war in Ukraine have had a direct impact on the museum.
Although Japan is said to be a major economic power, the amount of government spending on culture is very low. According to data released by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2009, France spent about 460 billion yen and South Korea about 340 billion yen, while Japan spent only 116.6 billion yen. Japan spent about 116.6 billion yen, the smallest amount among the six countries surveyed (Japan, the U.K., the U.S., Germany, France, and Korea). The ratio of cultural spending to the government budget is 0.11%, and the per capita amount is 922 yen, the second lowest level after the United States.
We have 5 million specimens, but the British Museum of Natural History in the U.K. has 80 million and the National Museum of Natural History in the U.S. has over 150 million. In that sense, it is not much at all. It would be wrong to say that Japan is good at this level, but I am proud of the fact that we must act as a museum that represents Asia. In order to do so, we need to acquire more funds and expand our activities, and it is obvious that we will be buried in the ranks of Asian museums.
However, the government’s involvement in museums and research facilities such as the KAKEMAKU continues to decline, and in order to survive, the museum must acquire the necessary funds for its research activities from outside sources, such as competitive funds, on its own. But this has led to competition for a small piece of the domestic pie, and the attempt to promote selection and concentration has resulted in an overall situation where there is little room to spare.
Looking at the reaction to crowdfunding, there is a general consensus that the government should guarantee the base of the operation. Competition to raise money to do something even more positive is good, but it’s pretty tough to talk about things like the current situation, where if you don’t compete, you will die.”
On the other hand, Director Shinoda said, “Some researchers say that since the government should fund the operation of the Science Expo, there is no need for us to do our own crowdfunding. I think that is a reasonable opinion. However, we cannot just sit on our hands and die. We must pass on our specimens into the future. To do so, we need to think about how the world is changing,” he points out.
For example, the National Museum of Nature and Science is collaborating with Pokemon on a project called the “Pokemon Fossil Museum. The exhibition has been traveling to various natural history museums around Japan and has become a very popular special exhibition. Director Shinoda concluded.
Despite some people saying, ‘Is this something a natural history museum would do?’ I think it is very important to first get people to visit the museum and let them know that this place is interesting to many people.
Unfortunately, the era in which researchers only need to do the research they like is over, and we have definitely come to an age in which we need to think about what we can do to ensure that our research in the 21st century will be relevant for the next 100 years.”
◆Profile of Kenichi Shinoda
Born in 1955, graduated from the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University. D. in Medicine. After working as an assistant professor at Saga Medical School, he became the director of the National Museum of Nature and Science in April 2021. Specializes in molecular anthropology. His publications include “DNA de tales of Japanese origins” (Iwanami Shoten) and “Mankind’s origins: Ancient DNA tells us about Homo sapiens’ ‘great journey'” (Chuko Shinsho).
