Vision/Mission
Business Description
RIKEN is Japan’s largest and most comprehensive research organization for basic and applied science and a world leader in a diverse array of scientific disciplines. For nearly a century since its foundation in 1917, RIKEN has fostered pioneering, innovative research in fields spanning the entire range of the natural sciences, from physics and chemistry to the life sciences and engineering.
Today, RIKEN encompasses a network of world-class research centers across Japan, with main campuses in Wako, Tsukuba, Yokohama, Kobe and Harima offering state-of-the-art facilities that rank among the best in the world.
This high-quality, high-performance research environment, combined with a uniquely bottom-up approach to scientific innovation, has enabled RIKEN to foster an environment in which researchers are able to thrive.
Background
In 1917, describing the process that led to the establishment of RIKEN, industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa wrote, “To turn the country from imitation to creative power, there is no alternative but to promote research in pure physics and chemistry, and for this we must establish an Institute of Physical and Chemical Research.” RIKEN was formally founded on March 20, 1917 by Shibusawa and leaders from various fields of research, modeled on the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, with an Imperial prince as President, and the mathematician Dairoku Kikuchi as its first Director.
RIKEN was established as a private foundation in the Komagome district of Tokyo. Unfortunately, the fledgling organization soon found itself in financial straits due to the economic turmoil and inflation that followed World War I.
Things improved in 1921 with the appointment of its third director, Masatoshi Okochi. Only 42 years of age at the time, Okochi was full of vision and determination. He set out to completely transform the underlying structure of RIKEN and erect in its place an institution like none other in Japan.
Okochi made the important decision to set up a group of subsidiary companies that would commercialize breakthroughs made at RIKEN. This allowed RIKEN to grow steadily through the 1930s and early 1940s, nurturing in the process a new generation of young Japanese scientists. At the height this conglomerate contained 63 different companies.
However, Japan’s defeat in World War II marked a sudden and devastating end to an era of rapid expansion at RIKEN. In 1948, the RIKEN conglomerate was dissolved, and RIKEN reopened as a private company. Its leaders tried to make ends meet by selling pharmaceuticals and licensing discoveries, but it was a difficult time. Then, in 1958, the institute was given a new status as a public corporation. With this, RIKEN was able to return to the forefront of Japanese science and technology.
In October 2003, Nobel laureate Ryoji Noyori assumed the presidency of RIKEN as the institution was reorganized as an independent administrative institution under the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
In April 2015, RIKEN acquired a new status, this time as a National Research and Development Institute. At the same time, President Noyori resigned, to be succeeded by Hiroshi Matsumoto, former president of Kyoto University.
In October 2016, RIKEN acquired a special new status as one of three Designated National Research and Development Institutes. This new status solidifies RIKEN’s position at the forefront of scientific research in Japan.
Research
RIKEN conducts research in a variety of fields, and has specialized centers in a number of scientific areas:
Location
RIKEN’s headquarters are in Wako, Saitama, just north of Tokyo. Main campuses are in Wako as well as Tsukuba, Yokohama, Kobe, and Harima in western Japan. RIKEN also has a liaison office in downtown Tokyo, and overseas offices in Beijing and Singapore.
Strengths
RIKEN allows researchers to focus their efforts solely on scientific research and provides them as well as outside researchers with state-of-the-art facilities that allow them to operate on the leading edge of science. Interdisciplinary research is encouraged by a number of systems.
Management
RIKEN is managed by a Board of Executive Directors appointed by the President, who is appointed by the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Employees
3,426 (2,932 research employees)
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