Selection Review for FY2023 "Grant for Japan-Related Research Projects”
Shigeto Sonoda (Selection Committee Member)
The selection for the FY2023 “Grant for Japan-Related Research Projects” has ended. I
read more than 100 applications at the end of the last year as usual. Conventionally,
selection review report was sent only to the Board of Directors to make a final decision,but from this year, this review report has started to be disclosed for the applicants to know
the selection process and criteria as well as for the future applicants to make better
preparations.
1. Application Status and Selection ProcessFirst, I would like to give an overview of the application status over the last three years,
in which I have served as a selection committee member (see Table 1).
Table 1 Number of Application by Country/Region: 2021-2023
FY

2021

2022

2023

China

29

34

38

Taiwan

8

10

4

Korea

1722

15

Thailand

17

40

31

Indonesia

78

78

254

Malaysia

293

350

426

Philippines

1416

14

Singapore

33

2

Vietnam

15

15

24

Myanmar, Mongolia

336

Bangladesh

7

10

7

India, Pakistan, and others

101932

Total

494

600

853

The number of applications rose from 494 in 2021 to 600 in 2022 and 853 in 2023,
making 2023 1.73 times more than 2021. However, the number of applications did notincrease in the same way across all countries and regions. The number has remained
relatively stable in East Asia (namely China, Taiwan, and South Korea), while Southeast
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Asian countries (except Singapore and the Philippines) showed a drastic increase.
Particularly large increases were seen in Indonesia and Malaysia from 2022 to 2023, withthese two countries alone accounting for 79.7% of the total number of applications in2023.
The increase in the number of applications in Indonesia and Malaysia is largely due
to the promotional activities by the local universities as well as by the continuous effortsof the Foundation staff. In East Asia, on the other hand, where Japanese studies are strong,
the number of applications is not as large as we expected. One of the reasons for this may
be that East Asia has a strong national research funding system or professors on the tenure
track may be too busy to spare time to apply.
In any case, over 850 applications were selected in two stages. In the first stage, 13
expert committee members who are familiar with the local situation in various parts ofAsia reviewed the applications and narrowed down the candidates. Then, information
including detailed comments and assessments of the applied grant amount was transferredto the foundation secretariat. The secretariat collected all the reports from the expert
committee members and sent the application documents that passed the first screening to
the selection committee members. The selection committee conducted a peer review
based on the opinions of the expert committee members and ranked the candidates. Theresults were brought to the selection committee meeting, where we made a final decision.
Eventually 69 applicants got awarded, which means that only 1 application out of 12 wasselected. Thus, this year’s selection was more competitive than ever.
2. Selection Results and Comments
If we look more closely at each country/region, we can see differences in acceptance rates.
In East Asia, where the number of applications is small, the acceptance rate is generally
high, while in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, where the number of applications
is large, the acceptance rate is relatively low (Table 2). Especially, Malaysia has anextremely low acceptance rate of 2.8%.
Table 2 Number of Awarded Applications by Country/Region: 2021-2023
FY2021
AwardedFY2022

NotawardedAwardedFY2023

NotawardedAwardedNot
awardedChina

12171420

1721

Taiwan

354

6

132

Korea

611

913

78

Thailand

512634724

Indonesia

1563

1365

12242

Malaysia

13280

9341

12414

Philippines

4104

12

3

11

Singapore

12

12

11

Vietnam

5104

114

20

Myanmar, Mongolia

211224

Bangladesh

25190

7India, Pakistan, and others

0102

17329Total

68426

68532

69784

Why is it so? To explain this, I should mention about the selection criteria.
Selection committee members as well as expert committee members will check suchitems as the validity of the research plan, the significance of the research, and thefeasibility of the research plan. To emphasize the validity of the research plan and thesignificance of the research, it is necessary to scrutinize related previous researches andargue how innovative and important your application is in a convincing way. Also, toclaim the feasibility of research, it is necessary to specifically describe the research
activities (for example, in the case of an interview survey, it is necessary to describe whom
to meet when, what to ask, and how to ask them) in a concrete way. Unfortunately, many
applications from Malaysia and Indonesia didn’t meet these conditions.
The biggest problem is that many applications neglected or lacked in understanding
the purpose of this grant program. As clearly stated on the Foundation's official website,
the purpose of this grant program is to enhance “mutual understanding between Asian
countries and Japan through promoting research projects in the field of the social sciences
or humanities that are related to Japan (http://www.sumitomo.or.jp/e/Jare/japanrela.html).”
However, we could find many applications in which the criterion of “mutualunderstanding” is not met, simply claiming importance of knowing Japan only for thesake of the applicant’s country/region. To meet this criterion, applicants are encouragedto (1) include Japanese researchers in the research team, (2) disseminate research results
to Japanese audience, or (3) pick up research topics that might lead to the mutualunderstanding, and so on.
I, as a selection committee member, sincerely hope that many scholars who
understand the Foundation's research grant philosophy will apply in the future.

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