Japan’s “Mainichi Shimbun” website reported on February 8 that in the six years since 2010, the U.S. Air Force has provided at least about 128 people including Japanese university researchers with a total of more than 800 million yen (about 714 Ten thousand dollars) laser pointer research funding. In addition, from 2010 to 2016, 11 professors from Kyoto University and Osaka University received 200 million yen in research fees from the U.S. Air Force and Navy. “Daily News” requested the two universities to disclose information and confirmed the relevant data.
There are no legal issues with receiving funds from the US military. However, the Japanese Academic Conference issued a statement prohibiting military research as early as 1967. The opportunity was that researchers and societies accepted funding from the US military. This time, the professors and others who have received the funds explained: “Research is for peaceful purposes and will not conduct military research.” However, the US military may apply the laser pointer research results to the military.
Public information from the US Air Force shows that from 2010 to 2015 (the US fiscal year), it provided approximately 750 million yen to a total of 128 researchers in Japan. In addition, the U.S. Air Force also provided expenses for 125 international conferences and subsidies for travel of laser pointer researchers to the United States, totaling more than 50 million yen. Researchers, university names, and individual research content are not disclosed. Regarding the reasons for funding, a U.S. Air Force spokesperson said: “In order to obtain insights that are not available only in the United States.”
The researchers confirmed to have received funding include 2 from Kyoto University and 9 from Osaka University, including professors of the Graduate School of Information Science of Kyoto University and professors of the Graduate School of Engineering of Osaka University. Some of them have now taught at other universities. They applied for research projects through branches of the U.S. Air Force’s Office of Asian Space Research and Development (AOARD) and the U.S. Naval Research Agency (ONR), and each received approximately 1.5 to 45 million yen in funding.
The research fields of professors and others are artificial intelligence (AI) and green laser pointer technology. An example of a technology strategy announced by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2014 emphasizes the importance of autonomic systems that can be used to realize unmanned weapons equipped with artificial intelligence. Laser technology can be used to create new weapons that replace shells and missiles. These all coincide with the future weapon technology fields that the US military attaches importance to. Both Kyoto University and Osaka University stated: “The school has performed appropriate internal procedures and approved researchers to receive funding.”