Program Overview
The EXcellence Program for Engaging Research Talent – Japan (EXPERT-J) is a program designed to strengthen Japan’s international talent mobility efforts and research capabilities. The program aims to achieve this by implementing the following two items:
1. Providing globally competitive remuneration and research environments for outstanding early-career researchers
Teams or individual outstanding young researchers affiliated with overseas institutions—including Japanese nationals—who are under 45 years of age at the time of invitation and acceptance (including postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students) will be offered world-class remuneration and research environments. This program seeks to improve Japan’s research capacity and promote the long-term retention of these researchers in Japan.
2. Building internationally competitive research universities in strategically prioritized fields
Japanese universities will accept outstanding young researchers from overseas in fields where they possess inherent strengths and aim to achieve global-level research standards through strategic enhancement.
This program has been implemented as an urgent measure to realize the “J-RISE Initiative”, coordinated by the Cabinet Office’s Council for Science, Technology and Innovation on June 13, 2025, to promote international talent mobility.
Implementation Details of the Program
- • When inviting or accepting early-career researchers from overseas through the program, universities will set salaries, living expenses, and research funds based on global standards.
- • To promote long-term talent retention, overseas early-career researchers supported by the program who are Principal Investigators (PIs) leading research projects will, in principle, be offered tenure or tenure-track positions by the university, enabling them to become self-sufficient in their employment after the support period.
- • Universities will also undertake measures to improve their research environment, such as setting up labs, to allow the overseas researchers accepted through the program to focus on their work.
Target Researchers
- • Outstanding early-career researchers from overseas affiliated with institutions in G7 countries or select nations from the Global South and engaged in strategic international collaboration with Japan.
- • When accepting researchers or doctoral students in critical technology fields, universities must implement measures that ensure research security.
Scheme
Management
The Chairperson of the Committee of EXcellence Program for Engaging Research Talent- Japan
| Miyazono Kohei | Full-time member, Council for Science, Technology and Innovation Cabinet Office |
The Members of the Committee of EXcellence Program for Engaging Research Talent- Japan (in Alphabetical order)
| Aoki Takafumi | Executive Vice President, Provost, CDO Tohoku University |
| Hibiya Junko | Professor Emerita International Christian University |
| Hono Kazuhiro | President National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) |
| Nishio Shojiro | Director, International Institute for Advanced Studies |
| Yasuura Hiroto | Vice Director-General Inter-University Research Institute Corporation Research Organization and Systems National Institute of Informatics |