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is a large research institute in Japan. Founded in 1917, it now has approximately 3000 scientists on seven campuses across Japan, the main one in Wako, just outside Tokyo. RIKEN is an Independent Administrative Institution whose formal name in Japanese is . RIKEN conducts research in many areas of science, including physics, chemistry, biology, medical science, engineering, high performance computing and computational science, and ranging from basic research to practical applications. It is almost entirely funded by the Japanese government, and its annual budget is approximately ¥88 billion (US$760 million). ==History== In 1913 the well-known scientist Jokichi Takamine first proposed the establishment of a national science research institute in Japan. This task was taken on by Eiichi Shibusawa, a prominent businessman, and following a resolution by the Diet in 1915, RIKEN came into existence in March 1917. In its first incarnation, RIKEN was a private foundation (''zaidan''), funded by a combination of industry, the government, and the Imperial Household. It was located in the Komagome district of Tokyo, and its first Director was the mathematician Dairoku Kikuchi. In 1927 Masatoshi Ōkōchi, the third Director, established the RIKEN Konzern (a zaibatsu). This was a group of spin-off companies that used RIKEN's scientific achievements for commercial ends and returned the profits to RIKEN. At its peak in 1939 the Konzern comprised about 121 factories and 63 companies, including Riken Kankōshi, which is now Ricoh. During World War II the Japanese army's atomic bomb program was conducted at RIKEN. In April 1945 the US bombed RIKEN's laboratories in Komagome, and in November, after the end of the war, Allied soldiers destroyed its two cyclotrons. After the war, the Allies dissolved RIKEN as a private foundation, and it was brought back to life as a company called , or . In 1958 the Diet passed the RIKEN Law, whereby the institute returned to its original name and entered its third incarnation, as a , funded by the government. In 1963 it relocated to a large site in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, just outside Tokyo. Since the 1980s RIKEN has expanded dramatically. New labs, centers, and institutes have been established in Japan and overseas, including: * in 1984, the Life Science Center in Tsukuba * in 1995, the Muon Research Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK * in 1997, the Harima Institute, the Brain Science Institute in Wako, and the center at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the USA * in 1998, the Genomic Sciences Center * in 2000, the Yokohama Institute, which now contains four centers for research in the life sciences * in 2002, the Kobe Institute, which contains the Center for Developmental Biology In October 2003 RIKEN's status changed again, to Independent Administrative Institution. As such, RIKEN is still publicly funded, and it is periodically evaluated by the government, but it has a higher degree of autonomy than before. RIKEN is regarded as the flagship research institute in Japan. It conducts basic and applied experimental research in a wide range of science and technology fields including physics, chemistry, medical science, biology and engineering. In the wake of the 2014 Stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency cell controversy, observers, journalists, and former members of RIKEN have stated that the organization is riddled with unprofessional and inadequate scientific rigor and consistency, and that this is reflective of serious issues with scientific research in Japan in general.〔Otake, Tomoko, "(‘STAPgate’ shows Japan must get back to basics in science )", ''Japan Times'', 21 April 2014〕〔Schreiber, Mark, "(Ongoing Obokata story seeks out scandal )", ''Japan Times'', 5 July 2014, p. 19〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「RIKEN」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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