[Dracophoenix]

>The academics I know are all focused on achieve specific goals, they rarely talk about the papers in the way the Canadian Acedemics I know did back home. Think "I want to automate boar trap monitoring so that farmers do not need to check it everytime, and so that non-boars do not get trapped".

I guess one of the bigger risks of doing science the Japanese way would be the development of pet projects and tunnel vision leading to dead-ends. This is by no means limited to Japan, but the number of cases where this has happened (hydrogen fuel cells, Honda robots, TRON OS) are notable.

Main topic aside, what's your position on research in Tsukuba? I've read several articles suggesting it's become a waste of money, infrastructure, and manpower as a number of labs (aside from JAXA) and private research firms (mainly in semi conductors) have either shuttered or moved elsewhere (mainly Tokyo). While Tsukuba may be a bit out of your way in both location and relevant subject matter, I would appreciate any insight you might have.