한국일보| 기사입력 2001-12-05 21:04 | 최종수정 2001-12-05 21:04
광고
50년간 30명의 노벨상 수상자를 배출한다는 정부 목표를 설정한 일본이스웨덴 노벨상 관계자들을 상대로 로비성 초청 공세를 펴 물의를 빚고 있다고 아사히(朝日)신문이 5일 보도했다.
노벨 물리학상 선정위원회의 안다스바라니 (스웨덴 왕립 과학아카데미 교수)사무국장은 4일 스톡홀름에서 기자회견을 갖고 일본의 초청 로비에 대해 강한 불쾌감을 표시했다.
그에 따르면 일본 학술진흥회는 내년 3월 일본에서 열리는 노벨상 100주년 기념포럼에 노벨상 선정위원과 노벨재단 관계자를 초청하면서 여비와체재비 등 모든경비를 부담하겠다고 제의했다.
바라니 국장은 자신이 13년간 선정작업에 참여해 왔으나 경비 전액 부담을 제시한 해외 초청은 한번도 없었다면서 10일 노벨상 수상식후 대응책을논의할 예정이라고 밝혔다.
그는 “노벨상은 계획해서 받을 수있는 것이 아니다”고 일본의 정부 목표를 비판하면서 “수상 목표를 세운 나라의 초청일 경우 뇌물이 될 가능성도 있다”고 지적했다.
그는 “장차일본인이 노벨상을 받을 경우 초청 로비의 덕분이라는 말이나오면 수상자 본인에게도 유감일 것”이라며 말했다.
이와 관련, 일본 문부과학성은 “노벨상위원회와의 교류는 적극적으로 추진하고 있지만 특별히 관계자에게 초청 공세를 펴도록 한 적은 없다”고밝혀 정부 개입을 부인했다.
도쿄=황영식특파원 yshwang@hk.co.kr
Japan"s Nobel ploy riles Swedes
Offer of all-expenses paid trip to prize officials outrages Scandinavians
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Robin McKie, science editor
The Observer, Sunday 16 December 2001 10.57 GMT
It was supposed to be an innocuous offer to aid scientific co-operation between two countries. But an attempt to get Sweden"s Nobel Foundation officials to take an all-expenses trip to Japan has outraged Scandinavian scientific sensibilities, and threatens to trigger a breakdown between the two nations.
"The invitations pose an ethical problem," Nobel committee member Anders Barany told Nature last week. "There is such an outspoken Japanese policy to acquire Nobel prizes."
The row also underlines how agitated the Japanese have become about their international image as unoriginal imitators, a failing that goes deep into the country"s troubled psyche.
A few months ago this insecurity led Japan"s government to make an extraordinary promise: its scientists would win a startling 30 Nobel prizes over the next 50 years. Given that the nation has managed only nine in 100 years, this promise will require its boffins to increase their Nobel output by more than 500 per cent, an unprecedented improvement.
"Could the government of any other country get away with making such ridiculous promises?" asked one unhappy Tokyo researcher.
Despite such criticisms, the country has followed up this pledge energetically. The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science set up an "information office" at Stockholm"s Karolinska Institute, Sweden"s medical university. Its function seems a blatant attempt to lobby Nobel medical committee members about the merits of Japanese researchers.
In a world of the quiet academic, such directness is unprecedented. But the Japanese have followed up their information office with an attempt to pay for a group of Nobel laureates and Nobel Foundation staff to come to Japan to celebrate the prizes" centenary.
The Japanese say they are just being hospitable. It is customary to cover visiting scientists" expenses, they claim. It is not a view shared by Barany. The Nobel Foundation has enough money to pick up the bill for any visit, he told Nature.
Moreover, the bid is also controversial within Japan. There the government"s Nobel policy has also stirred up intense feelings, although few scientists deny that the nation has a pitiable prize record for one of the world"s richest and most technologically proficient nations.
In 100 years, Japan has picked up only six Nobel prizes in the main science topics of physics, chemistry and physiology. (Ironically, one of these was awarded this year to the chemist Ryoji Noyori.) By contrast, Britain has won 70 in these fields, even though its population is less than half that of Japan.
For a country whose electronics, cars and computers dominate world markets, such a level of scientific excellence is puny and worrying.
But simply going round throwing money on the world promotion of Japanese scientists will not solve the problem, say critics. It is not that the rest of the world is just failing to understand Japanese greatness. The real problem lies with the nation"s educational failings. The country lacks creativity because its educational system relies far too heavily on rote learning and conformity.
In addition, the entire Japanese university system is top-heavy and paternalistic. Its academic "koza" system gives professors immense power to dictate what their younger researchers do. Instead of pursuing their own original ideas, these young scientists have to follow up the moribund ideas of ageing bosses.
As one of Japan"s few Nobel prize winners - Hideki Shirakawa, of the University of Tsukaba - says, younger scientists have little alternative "unless they go abroad". Until that problem is tackled, no amount of promotion will buy the nation what it now openly craves: tangible scientific credibility.
영국의 가디언지에서도 일본의 노벨상 로비를 비판
모든것을 돈으로 해결하려는 방사능 지진섬 일본원숭이들..www