[hbarka]

> Initially, they didn’t have much luck. No other researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University, where Prof. Aono worked, would be taking over his record-keeping, Hiroko Nishino, a university spokeswoman, wrote in an email.

I’m surprised that there was lackluster response. For this kind of honor, you would think that there would be a flood of responses. I am attributing it to bad marketing.

[nxobject]

Part of me also thinks: yes, but is there any money/compensation attached to this? Honor, sadly, doesn't pay for grad students or soft money researchers.

[thaumasiotes]

> Honor, sadly, doesn't pay for grad students

Are you kidding? Grad students are well known to receive trivial monetary pay. Most of their pay is in honor.

[goodcanadian]

They still need to eat, and that trivial monetary pay component must come from somewhere . . .

[rat9988]

Not really, there is a promise of a better career in the future.

[barry-cotter]

Depends on what they’re studying and where. If you’re a PhD student English Literature at Directional State University most of your compensation is consumption value, not the promise of a career[1] or pecuniary compensation.

[1] For the huge majority of PhD students in the Arts and Humanities there are virtually no jobs in their fields and it’s not that much better in the social or exact sciences, though there is at least some extra academic demand for their skills. There are very, very few fields outside academia where a doctorate is a necessary qualification or close to it and those are ~all a terrible investment if what you want is a remunerative career; things like biomedical research where you do a doctorate, then a postdoc and then get a job paying what an MBA from a top tier business school gets their first year out.

[nxobject]

Advice I got from an ex-cancer biologist working at a devices company: get your masters, and get out. PhD programs will always be there, but compound interest won’t.

[tantalor]

That's the honor

[thaumasiotes]

No, that would be deferred compensation. The only problem with that theory is that it isn't real. Grad students aren't working for the promise of a better career in the future.

[janderson215]

“That’s a risk we were willing to take.” -Dumb and Dumber

[gregjw]

Not usually how things work in Japanese culture

[tacomagick]

I'd like you to elaborate more on your answer

[CalRobert]

Are people not paid?

[dfxm12]

It could also be that doing the work isn't held in as high esteem as you think.