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EAST ASIA

JAPAN

The United States and Japan have a long history of working together in biomedical and behavioral research. At any one time there are more than 300 Japanese visiting scientists who are working in NIH intramural laboratories on the main campus in Bethesda and in the D.C. surrounding area. Historically, Japan has been one of the top two countries of scientists represented in the NIH's Visiting Program (http://dis.ors.od.nih.gov/visitingprogram/01_vpmain.html).

U.S.-Japan Cooperation in Research and Development in Science and Technology

This agreement was signed by the United States and Japan on May 1, 1980 and has subsequently been renewed multiple times and extended for ten years effective July 20, 2004. Under the umbrella of this Agreement, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/) and the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki National Research Institutes, Japan, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a Brain Research Cooperative Program (BRCP) on November 29, 2000. Since its inception in 2002, the U.S. component of the BRCP has successfully supported collaborative research at Japanese institutions and international workshops in the neurosciences.

U.S.-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program

The U.S.-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program (CMSP) is one of the longest running bilateral programs in NIH's history. It was established in 1965 to expand joint cooperative biomedical research efforts by focusing on important public-health issues in Asia. Currently, the NIH National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and Environmental Health Science (NIEHS), and the U.S. State Department are the primary participants in this program. Important scientific advances have emerged from this program, including collaborations to develop new or improved vaccines for hepatitis B, cholera, influenza, and rotaviruses. The eighth CMSP Five-Year Report was published in January 2007, which highlighted some of the major scientific achievements in the last 40 years. For more information about the CMSP (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/GlobalResearch/usjapan/).

Fellowship Opportunities in Japan

The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) provides two main categories of scientific collaboration fellowships using the NIH as a nominating authority. The first fellowship, in cooperation with the NIH's Fogarty International Center (FIC), Division of International Training and Research, and the NIH Office of Intramural Research, offers fellowship awards to support meritorious biomedical and behavioral research projects undertaken in NIH laboratories by young Japanese postdoctoral researchers. The second conducts fellowship programs for U.S. (and permanent resident) researchers to promote international cooperation in and mutual understanding through scientific research in Japan. These programs provide opportunities for U.S. and eligible foreign researchers to conduct cooperative research under their Japanese host researchers. http://www.fic.nih.gov/programs/research_grants/jsps/index.htm